2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumMartin O’Malley says white people need to appreciate ‘vulnerability’ of black neighbors.
Democratic presidential candidate Martin OMalley responded Wednesday to the renewed protest over the death of unarmed black Baltimore resident Freddie Gray by addressing what he described as the difficulties that white people have talking about race.
In a wide ranging interview with Fusions Alicia Menendez, OMalley responded to a question about Gray by saying that he thinks its very difficult for a lot of us who are white to appreciate the constant state of vulnerability within which many of our black neighbors live. As the former Mayor of Baltimore, OMalley has faced criticism for his role in crafting the citys policing strategy, which some activists argue helped lead to an environment of mistrust between communities and police there.
OMalley, who was also Marylands governor from 2007 to 2015, also took an opportunity to draw contrast between himself and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clintons position on the Black Lives Matter movement. Responding to a comment Clinton made to a group of Black Lives Matter protesters in August, OMalley took issue with the former Secretary of States assertion that, without a plan, protesters will get nothing but lip service from as many white people as you can pack into Yankee Stadium.
I would disagree with Secretary Clinton. In fact, I think there are things that we can do that actually improve how we police police, that improve police community relations, that can reduce police involved shootings, which we did here in Baltimore, driving them down to their three lowest years on record.
OMalley went on to praise a number of policies that he believes can be effective in addressing the issue of police violence, including civilian review boards for police, reverse stings for corrupt police officers and the use of body cameras. Last month a group of activists affiliated with Black Lives Matter released a policy platform titled Campaign Zero which lays out specific plans for civilian oversight of police forces and greater use of body cameras.
http://fusion.net/video/192781/martin-omalley-vulnerability-black-neighbors/
JustAnotherGen
(31,811 posts)Kick and rec
elleng
(130,865 posts)Number23
(24,544 posts)FSogol
(45,476 posts)askew
(1,464 posts)None of O'Malley's staff tweeted out about this interview which is odd.
elleng
(130,865 posts)askew
(1,464 posts)Two of his senior staffers are posting stories unrelated to O'Malley on twitter. Hoping this is just due to the holiday weekend and not a more serious issue. O'Malley has a ton of events scheduled this weekend in Iowa. Let's hope he gets a great turnout at all of them.
oasis
(49,376 posts)should serve him well in the coming months. He is the exact opposite of Donald Trump.
elleng
(130,865 posts)It's his positive attitude that got and keeps my attention.
Raine1967
(11,589 posts)This is a really good article. Thanks Ellen!
elleng
(130,865 posts)Will do some 'kicking.'
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)and that is also a plan. Go figure... It was released like the same week, if not the same day.
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)Another way that O'Malley might distinguish himself would be to support every proposal from Campaign Zero, and ask that the other democratic candidates do the same.