WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the Black Lives Matter movement is drawing attention to a specific problem that’s happening only in African-American communities.
He says it’s “a legitimate issue that we’ve got to address.”
Obama commented Thursday at a White House forum on the criminal justice system. Obama, members of Congress and others are pushing for changes to make the system fairer, such as by reducing prison terms for non-violent offenders.
Obama says Black Lives Matter quickly came to be seen as opposed to police, but that the loosely organized group is raising specific concerns about whether blacks in certain areas are treated unfairly or are more frequently subject to excessive force by police.
Recent killings of unarmed black men by police gave rise to the movement.
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