The former president was joined by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, President of Color of Change Rashad Robinson, Minneapolis City Council member Phillipe Cunningham, and My Brother’s Keeper youth leader Playon Patrick in a conversation moderated by Campaign Zero co-founder Brittany Packnett Cunningham on “Reimaging Policing in the Wake of Continued Police Brutality.”
Robinson, head of the Color of Change, added “sometimes we have to change the laws and sometimes we have to change the people who implement those laws.”
Obama said that mayors and county executives, who appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with police unions, hold the power to set new standards for how police interact with their local communities.
Speaking of the death of George Floyd May 25 in Minneapolis and the national response to that death, Obama said many communities have endured pain during these times and countless people have lost their lives.
He compared the young people demonstrating in the streets in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement since Floyd’s death to other civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez and Malcolm X.
“You have helped to make the entire country feel as if this is something that’s got to change,” Obama said.
