Boehner: US police-blacks relation becomes ‘national crisis’
US House Speaker John Boehner has called the deteriorating relationship between African-Americans and police in the United States a national crisis.
The comments by the Ohio Republican on NBC’s Meet the Press came on Sunday in the aftermath of nationwide protests over the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody.
Gray died of severe spinal injuries on April 19, a week after he was arrested and detained by Baltimore police.
“I think that if you look at what’s happened over the course of the last year, you just got to scratch your head,” Boehner said.
On Friday, six Baltimore police officers who were involved in Gray's arrest were charged in connection with his death.
Baltimore's chief prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, told reporters that her office's investigation determined that Gray's death was a homicide, adding that his arrest was illegal and his treatment in custody amounted to murder and manslaughter.
Prosecutors charged the officers, including a lieutenant and a sergeant, with multiple counts including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of the African-American man.
Boehner called the charges against the police officers both “outrageous” and “unacceptable,” if proven true.
The tragic incident, which was captured by an eyewitness on his cellphone, shows an injured Gray being dragged into a van by police officers.
The killing was just one of a succession of fatal police brutalities in recent months.
Large-scale protests were held across the US after a series of high-profile incidents of white police officers killing unarmed African-American men, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.
GJH/GJH
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