The Katie Couric Interview:
U.S. Attorney General Loretta
Lynch
In a wide-ranging interview with Yahoo Global
News Anchor Katie Couric, U.S.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke
about the racial tensions facing the nation and the recent shootings by and of
police officers. Couric also asked Lynch about the ‘Black Lives Matter’
movement and whether there should be a system where independent prosecutors investigate police misconduct.
Watch the full interview
on Yahoo:
http://yhoo.it/2ayJAOs
Interview
highlights includes Lynch on:
· Current
tensions with police and the African-American community – “We are at a very difficult point in
our national dialogue on race, on law enforcement, on the strength of our
communities, the strength of our cities. And it does, in fact, seem as if the
tensions are greater than they've ever been…There's always been law
enforcement who's been trying to have a positive relationship with the
community. There've always been incidents that have prevented that from
happening. But we now have the eyes of the country and the world on it in a way
in which we have not.”
· If there
should be a system where independent prosecutors investigate police misconduct
– “You know, there's a lot of different ways to approach that.
I think that whatever system a jurisdiction chooses to have, it has to be as
transparent as possible. It has to be a system that people in the community
understand and feel invested in and feel has a process of listening to their
needs and addressing their concerns fairly and openly. What you want is a
system where accountability begins in the police department. When I
talk to community groups, not only do they want accountability and
transparency should there be charges, they want accountability and transparency
when police departments themselves are dealing with the bad actors.”
· Her reaction
to the phrase, ‘All Lives Matter’ – “You know, I guess my reaction is that
I am troubled by the fact that people think we have to choose. That people
think that one phrase eliminates the other, whichever one someone chooses to
make their particular mantra. And it's been my hope that, as we talk about
these issues, we've talked again about the videos that we've seen of these
truly tragic encounters between law enforcement and civilians, that people look
at that and say that, ‘This is someone who lost their life. And we have to find
out why.’ We have to get to the bottom of it. And whoever is involved in that
has to feel as if they are treated as fairly and impartially as any other
citizen in our society. And when people are expressing the view that large
segments of our society do not have that feeling, that's a problem for all of
us.”
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