Barr: ‘I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist’

by Justine Coleman - 06/07/20 2:27 PM ET

Attorney General William Barr said Sunday that he doesn’t think the law enforcement system in the U.S. is “systemically racist” as protests over George Floyd’s death continue across the country.

CBS’s “Face The Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan asked the attorney general if he believed there is “systemic racism in law enforcement.”

Barr responded, “I think there’s racism in the United States still but I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist.”

“I understand the distrust, however, of the African American community given the history in this country,” he added.

“I think there’s racism in the United States,” AG Bill Barr tells @margbrennan.

“But I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist. https://t.co/dq311AV3bv pic.twitter.com/H2W54re4tt

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 7, 2020

Barr said the U.S. has to acknowledge that “for most of our history, our institutions were explicitly racist.”

“Since the 1960s, I think we’ve been in a phase of reforming our institutions and making sure that they’re in sync with our laws and aren’t fighting a rearguard action to impose inequities,” he said.

When Brennan asked if the reforming was “working,” Barr said it’s been “difficult,” but “I think it is working and progress has been made.”

Other Trump administration officials said on Sunday shows that systemic racism in law enforcement didn’t exist. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he grew up in a time “when there was real systemic racism,” which is “very uncommon now.”

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf also said there is no “systemic racism problem” in law enforcement but added there are officers who “abuse their jobs.”

Floyd died after being detained by Minneapolis police last month. Video footage showed former officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck during his detainment as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe and became unresponsive.