Sen. Sanders: Ferguson

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Last edited Mon Aug 18, 2014, 10:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Sen. Bernie Sanders discusses the issues surrounding ongoing protests in Ferguson, Missouri with Ed Schultz on MSNBC.



Bernie Sanders Has a Brilliant Idea: Instead of Giving Police Tanks, Let’s Create Jobs
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/18/bernie-sanders-brilliant-idea-giving-police-tanks-create-jobs.html
(snip)
Sen. Sanders said,

When you see the kind of force that’s being used in Ferguson it really does make it appear that the police department there is an occupying army in a hostile territory, and that is absolutely not what we want to see in the United States. I think we gotta rethink a lot this heavy equipment that police departments around the country are utilizing.

The second point is that I hope what Ferguson teaches us is that not only the violence being perpetrated against young black men, but also the economic crisis facing black youth in this country. Ed, youth unemployment in America is tragically high. It is twenty percent. African American youth unemployment is thirty-five percent. In the St. Louis area it is significantly higher than that, and if we are going to address the issue of crime in low income areas and in African-American areas, it might be a good idea that instead of putting heavy equipment into police departments in those areas, we start creating jobs for the kids there who desperately need them.