Obama: 'This is not just an issue for Ferguson, this is an issue for America'

Obama: &#039;This is not just an issue for Ferguson, this is an issue for America&#039;

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

last updated 10 January 2015

President Obama gave an address to the nation Monday night after it was announced there would be no indictment in the shooting death of Michael Brown.

"There are Americans who agree with it and Americans deeply disappointed, even angry," he said of the grand jury's decision. "It's an understandable reaction." Obama asked that people listen to the words of Brown's family, who requested that protestors remain peaceful and honor the life of their son.

Obama said that police officers "put their lives on the line for us every single day," and as Ferguson officers "do their jobs in the coming days, they need to work with the community, not against the community, to distinguish a handful of people who may use the grand jury's decision as an excuse for violence, and distinguish them from the vast majority who just want their voices heard around legitimate issues in terms of how communities and law enforcement interact."

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The president added that the situation in Ferguson speaks to "broader challenges that we still face as a nation," and "in too many parts of this country, deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color." There are things that can be done, Obama added, including working on bettering relations between law enforcement and communities and staffing police forces to better match the makeup of the community. "This is not just an issue for Ferguson, this is an issue for America," he said.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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