2016 Presidential Race: Ohio Gov. John Kasich Says He's Led Concerns of Black Lives Matter Issues
Republican presidential candidate John Kasich said he not only understands the concerns behind the Black Lives Matter movement but that he also has taken lead in finding solutions as the governor of Ohio.
The 2016 hopeful talked about racial injustice and the Black Lives Matter movement during a recent video interview with CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett.
"There are a lot of people in our inner cities who feel that the system... works against them," Kasich said, adding that "in some cases, they are" right.
"I'm one governor who has also led on this issue," he stated.
Kasich noted that he assembled a diverse task force to improve police relations with the community. The panel was created in December after Cleveland and the Cleveland Division of Police came under fire following the police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
Surveillance of the shooting shows that Tamir was walking around and waving a pellet gun at a playground when a man called 911 to report someone with a gun that he believed was "probably fake." Although the caller stated several times that the weapon was likely a toy, the dispatcher did not transmit that information to the responding officers. As a result, the officers believed they were looking for an adult black male on a "gun run," according to NBC News.
The surveillance also revealed that rookie cop Timothy Loehmann fatally shot the African-American boy only two seconds after arriving on the scene. Rice was then left lying in the grass bleeding to death for four minutes until a detective and FBI agent arrived. Rice died the following day at a hospital.
One month after the shooting, the U.S. Justice Department investigation found a pattern of the use of excessive force by Cleveland police.
According to Kasich, Ohio officials have begun working on a statewide policy to curb the use of deadly force by police. The GOP governor also noted that they are working to improve the recruiting and hiring practices of Ohio police departments.
"Now we've moved to a different collaborative, where we're trying to get the community to understand that there is a police officer whose family waits every night for them to get home, and they love that police officer because that's their mom or dad," Kasich said. "And the police have to understand the concerns inside of the community. It's about getting people together, people talking, understanding one another, and the right policing policies."
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