Story at a glance
- Former President Obama said Wednesday that “institutional constraints” limited what he could say about investigations into the killings of both Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.
- Obama maintained he did not want to “endanger” federal investigations by appearing to “come down decisively in favor of guilt or innocence.”
- “I went as far as I could just commenting on cases like Trayvon Martin or what was happening in Ferguson because as we discovered, not every president follows this. At least, my successor didn’t,” he said
Former President Obama said Wednesday that “institutional constraints” limited what he could say while in office about investigations into the killings of both Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.
Speaking to a virtual gathering with My Brother’s Keeper Leadership Forum, Obama maintained he did not want to “endanger” federal investigations by appearing to “come down decisively in favor of guilt or innocence.”
“I went as far as I could just commenting on cases like Trayvon Martin or what was happening in Ferguson because as we discovered, not every president follows this. At least, my successor didn’t,” Obama said, according to CNN. “But I followed the basic notion that the Justice Department was independent, I could not steer them.”
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The deaths of Martin and Brown during Obama’s presidency led to national conversations and protests over racial justice. Martin, a Florida teenager, was killed in 2012 by George Zimmerman, who was part of a neighborhood watch. Brown, an unarmed Black man, was killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.
Zimmerman was acquitted and a grand jury declined to indict Wilson, leading to nationwide protests.
Obama said in 2012 that Martin’s case personally affected him, concluding if he “had a son, he’d look a lot like Trayvon.”
“When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids,” he added.
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Despite his refusal to publicly take sides in matters under federal investigations, Obama said his Justice Department was able to move the conversation and practices in a different direction.
“But what I’m proud of is that not only were we able to refashion how the Justice Department thought about these issues — coming in, looking at a jurisdiction like Ferguson and saying: ‘How do we use all the tools of the federal government to rethink what they’re doing and to hold them accountable?’ — but also to be able to use our convening power to gather and focus attention on, what are the practical outcomes that can be implemented across the country,” Obama said, according to CNN.
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