Email sent to his supporters:

"Right now, my hometown of South Bend is hurting. This past weekend, a member of our South Bend community – a Black man named Eric Logan – lost his life at the hands of another member of our community – a white police officer.

While the case is still being investigated, we do know this: a South Bend family is enduring the crushing and inconsolable anguish that far too many Black and Latino families across the country have shared. Our city, and our nation, demands answers about the dynamic between our police officers and the communities they are sworn to protect.

I am not from a community of color, and I pray that I’ll never get the terrible phone call that Eric Logan’s family received last Sunday. But Eric’s death – no matter what details emerge about the circumstances and the actions of the officer involved – shines a bright light on a subject that impacts my life, your life, and the lives of Americans from all walks of life. All police work and all of American life takes place in the shadow of racism, which hurts everyone and everything it touches. Historic racism, present-day racism, and generational racism – they all secrete a kind of poison into the bloodstream of this country. And we must join together to make things right, no matter how demanding that process may be.

When someone sees police car lights in his neighborhood and is filled with fear instead of reassurance, that should move all of us to demand a change in how policing is done. When someone gets followed around a store by a security guard because she committed the sin of shopping while Black, that should spark outrage in all of us, whether we know her or not. When a parent is forced to discuss with their child how they – differently than their white peers – must be cautious in how they move and speak when confronted by a police officer, that should break all of our hearts.

There is a direct relationship between what happened in our nation’s past and what’s happening now. We cannot take racist policies and replace them with neutral policies and expect things to even out; the consequences of racial hurt for the economic and physical security of all Americans, and especially Black Americans, shape our times.

We must do more. Here at home, building on past work that has included civilian oversight, police data transparency, bias and civil rights trainings, we are now taking further steps to end the divide of distrust between police and those they serve – with transparency and accountability as our central guides.

In new ways, we will elicit community input on the policies that decide how the police department does its work – policies on body cameras, the use of force, and the prevention of bias – and we will empower community members to help shape how these policies are put into practice.

No diverse community – least of all our country as a whole – can move forward without directly confronting how racism undermines everything we work to achieve. In our past and our present, we have innumerable moments in which racial injustice came at the hands of those trusted with being instruments of justice, and this fact burdens all of us.

I believe that if there is any place that can overcome the things that are pulling people apart, it’s here in America, especially my hometown.

I thank you for your moral support in these efforts as we seek to build a safer and more just city and country.

Pete

Well stated. He seems like a good one...

As the Brits like to say, "fine words butter no parsnips." Mayor Pete has a real problem to solve here, and some in the black community think this is somewhat of a blind spot for him in practice. We'll see how he handles it, not just what he emails about it. And I say this as a person who supports him getting the nomination.

Right now, I'm desperate for smart and competent. Experience would be nice ... but I prioritize smart and competent.

The key to being a good President, as far as I am concerned, is something that you'll never be able to divine on a debate stage: the ability to hire terrific people, and then listen to their advice.

quote:

Originally posted by rontuner:
Well stated. He seems like a good one...

+1

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
Right now, I'm desperate for smart and competent. Experience would be nice ... but I prioritize smart and competent.

I know exactly what you mean! The bar is so low, and the damage done by the current potus so significant.... I'd vote for a sea otter if it would get him out of office....

If you did, I'd look the otter way.

*Groan*

Don't encourage him....

Mayor Pete has a tough way to go here. Not sure he can do much, but if he can it will certainly add to his credibility.

Reforming racist cops in Indiana is going to take a very competent hand. If he can do that the flyover electorate may forget he’s gay. Nevermind the south. They’re hopeless and I no longer care what they think. With any luck the rest of the country feels the same way.

I like this guy, but damned if he doesn't have a tough row to hoe.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
As the Brits like to say, "fine words butter no parsnips." Mayor Pete has a real problem to solve here, and some in the black community think this is somewhat of a blind spot for him in practice. We'll see how he handles it, not just what he emails about it. And I say this as a person who supports him getting the nomination.

Yes, but you can't ignore that this email is part of how he is handling it. And it's a good start, imo.

I think there's no way he can "win" in this situation, but how he responds and what the official government response is will be important. This is a good start, but it is just a start.

He's not in a good place (in terms of the circumstances), but I'm impressed that his first words included the "r word," and he didn't try to minimize the potential role of racism. This will be a tough test for him, as it would be for anyone. Let's hope that the purity ponies, on all sides, don't run him off the rails.

Purity ponies ... love it.

But you can bet your bottom dollar that they will make the attempt. Slash and burn politics demands it.

You have but to look at the feeding frenzy around Biden.

On the other hand, it could have been a brilliant move on his part to look like the reasonable candidate among a lot of zealots.

Biden's problem has always been his tendency to talk without thinking. I think his heart is in the right place, but seriously, he needs to shut up sometimes. Or listen to his advisors and not wing it.

GQ had an article in 2006, "Joe Biden Can't Shut Up," two years before his presidential run.