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Attorney General Bill Barr Denies Nation's Police Are Systemically Racist

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×U.S. EditionPart of HuffPost Politics. ©2022 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved.×Attorney General said Sunday that he does not believe that there is systemic racism in the nation’s police force, contradicting a that shows racial bias in virtually every part of the American criminal justice system. Barr’s comments echo sentiments made by others in the Trump administration amid nationwide protests following the death of while in police custody. “I think there’s racism in the United States still, but I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist,” Barr told on Sunday. “I understand the distrust, however, of the African American community, given the history in this country.” Barr went on to say that the country’s institutions, such as law enforcement, “were explicitly racist” for most of U.S. history, but added that sufficient reform has been made within the last 60 years.Advertisement“I think the reform is a difficult task, but I think it is working and progress has been made,” Barr said. Asked about the officers who have committed police brutality, Barr suggested that they are few.“We have to be careful about automatically assuming that the actions of an individual necessarily mean that their organization is rotten. All organizations have people who engage in misconduct, and you sometimes have to be careful as for when you ascribe that to the whole organization and when it really is some errant member who isn’t following the rules,” he said.Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security, and Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, made similar comments in separate interviews Sunday, as did White House national security adviser last week.Advertisement“I do not think that we have a systemic racism problem with law enforcement officers across this country,” “Do I acknowledge that there are some law enforcement officers that abuse their job? Yes. And again, we need to hold those accountable.”Carson, when asked the same question in an interview with CNN’s State of the Union, answered: “I grew up at a time when there was real systemic racism.”“I grew up at a time when there was real systemic racism,” US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson says. “We need to deal with some of the issues in the police departments, but it’s an easy time to do it." — State of the Union (@CNNSotu)The comments from Barr, Wolf, Carson and O’Brien come amid nationwide protests against the violent deaths of Floyd .Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a former police chief, responded to Wolf’s comments in an interview with ABC News on Sunday, insisting, “We have a lot of work to do, and systemic racism is always the ghost in the room.”AdvertisementDemings added: “What we have to do as a nation is hold police accountable, provide the necessary oversight to do that, look at training standards, look at use-of-force policies, look at who we are hiring, look at diversity within those agencies and come together and create legislation that will support initiatives like that.”Suggest a correctionNewsletter Sign UpHuffPost's top politics stories, straight to your inbox.Successfully Subscribed!Realness delivered to your inbox

×U.S. EditionPart of HuffPost Politics. ©2022 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved.×Attorney General said Sunday that he does not believe that there is systemic racism in the nation’s police force, contradicting a that shows racial bias in virtually every part of the American criminal justice system. Barr’s comments echo sentiments made by others in the Trump administration amid nationwide protests following the death of while in police custody. “I think there’s racism in the United States still, but I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist,” Barr told on Sunday....

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Attorney General Bill Barr Denies Nation's Police Are Systemically Racist

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