--- title: Obama on Ferguson Grand-Jury Decision: 'This Is an Issue for America' description: Obama appealed for calm Monday after the news that a grand jury declined to indict the Ferguson police officer who killed Michael Brown canonical: https://time.com/3604147/obama-ferguson-no-indictment-decision/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-25T03:56:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:02:08.591Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama on Ferguson Grand Jury Decision: 'This Is an Issue for America' og:description: President Obama made a statement after the grand-jury announcement Monday evening. og:url: https://time.com/3604147/obama-ferguson-no-indictment-decision/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd30bda8ec6e62d8c/69876ac62dce01767f9dbfe1/obama-ferguson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: US-CRIME-RACISM-JURY-DECISION-OBAMA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama on Ferguson Grand Jury Decision: 'This Is an Issue for America' twitter:description: President Obama made a statement after the grand-jury announcement Monday evening. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd30bda8ec6e62d8c/69876ac62dce01767f9dbfe1/obama-ferguson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama on Ferguson Grand-Jury Decision: 'This Is an Issue for America' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=d5fe8d7a-3cac-4a2c-8e25-54ddac8e168e&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch: President Obama on Ferguson Grand Jury Decision [Watch (HLS stream): Watch: President Obama on Ferguson Grand Jury Decision](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qhHYlz03.m3u8) (1:24)  _Published 2014-11-25. President Obama made a statement after the grand jury announcement Monday evening_ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Nov 25, 2014 3:56 AM UTC by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Nov 25, 2014 3:56 AM UTC President Barack Obama appealed for calm Monday evening after the announcement that a grand jury [declined to indict](http://time.com/3598612/ferguson-grand-jury-decision-darren-wilson-michael-brown/) the Ferguson, Mo., police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown after an encounter in August. Speaking from the White House about an hour after St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced the long-awaited decision involving the officer, Darren Wilson, Obama called for the incident to spark a larger discussion of race issues in America. “We need to recognize that the situation in Ferguson speaks to the broader challenges we still face as a nation,” he said. “In too many parts of this country, a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color.” Obama urged all sides to show restraint, keeping in line with the Brown family’s wishes. “There’s inevitably going to be some negative reaction, and it’ll make for good TV,” he said, while also asking law-enforcement officials to “show care and restraint” in dealing with peaceful protesters in Ferguson and around the country. As he spoke, television news networks aired split-screen video footage of police deploying tear gas and smoke grenades at demonstrators, a small number of whom turned violent soon after the decision was announced. Obama cautiously avoided wading into the substance of the grand jury’s decision. “We need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make,” he said. “It’s an outcome that, either way, was going to be a subject of intense disagreement not only in Ferguson, but across America.” Brown’s death and the subsequent protests in the St. Louis suburb captured national attention this summer, prompting multiple presidential statements that requested calm. At the time, Obama also ordered the Department of Justice to carry out an independent investigation of the incident, which is ongoing. The President has historically tiptoed around discussing the issue of race, but has gradually become more vocal since the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012\. That includes launching the My Brother’s Keeper initiative last year to help young men of color. He has also deployed outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder to work with law enforcement in Ferguson and elsewhere to help ease tensions. Obama held out the possibility in his remarks that he might visit Ferguson, but no trip is expected until the situation in the city calms down. ## Transcript First and foremost, we are a nation built on the rule of law. And so, we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury's to make. We need to recognize that the situation in Ferguson speaks to broader challenges that we still face as a nation. The fact is, in too many parts of this country. A deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color. We need to recognize that this is not just an issue for Ferguson, this is an issue for America. We have made enormous progress in race relations over the course. For the past several decades but what is also true is that there are still problems and communities of color aren't just making these problems up separating that from this particular decision there are issues in which the law. Too often feels as if it is being applied in a discriminatory fashion. To those in Ferguson, there are ways of channeling your concerns constructively and there are ways of channeling your concerns destructively. 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