“We appreciate them and we love them,” President Obama told the Congressional Black Caucus about police officers this weekend, The Hill reports. “I just want to repeat, because somehow this never gets on the TV: There is no contradiction between us caring about our law enforcement officers and also making sure that our laws are applied fairly,” he said. “We want to protect our police officers. We'll do a better job doing it if our communities can feel confident that they are being treated fairly. I hope I'm making that clear.”
Obama called the criminal justice system a “profound barrier to opportunity in too many communities.” He added: “We need to make sure the laws are applied evenly. This is not a new problem. It's just that in recent months, in recent years, suddenly folks have videos and body cameras, and social media, and so it's opened our eyes to these incidents.” He also spoke about the nation’s high prison population, saying that, “Mass incarceration rips apart families. It hollows out neighborhoods. It perpetuates poverty.” He repeated his intention to back legislation to address “unjust sentencing laws.”