United States National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday that he doesn’t think systemic racism is an issue in U.S. law enforcement agencies.
After days where massive protests organized in cities across the country against the murder of George Floyd, O’Brien told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he doesn’t “think there’s systemic racism” amongst the police. Instead, he argued that there are some “bad cops” who may be racist or poorly trained. He argued while there are “some bad apples” among police officers, the majority of police officers are “great Americans.”
“I think 99.9% of our law enforcement officers are great Americans, and many of them are African American, Hispanic, Asian,” O’Brien said. “They’re working the toughest neighborhoods, they’ve got the hardest jobs to do in this country. And I think they’re amazing, great Americans and they’re my heroes.”
O’Brien said the “bad cops” must “be rooted out, because there’s a few bad apples that are giving law enforcement a terrible name. And there’s no doubt that there’s some racist police. I think they’re the minority.”
“I’m just so proud of the way our law enforcement professionals are protecting us and handling the situation with restraint. And we love our law enforcement, but we do have to get rid of those like the dirty cop that killed George Floyd,” said O’Brien.
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