Obama steps out as US confronts confluence of crises

Barack Obama held a virtual town hall event with young people to discuss policing and the civil unrest that has followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He called for turning the protests over Floyd’s death into policy change to ensure safer policing and increased trust between communities and law enforcement.

Washington: Former US president Barack Obama is taking on an increasingly public role as the nation confronts a confluence of historic crises that has exposed deep racial and socioeconomic inequalities in America and reshaped the November election.

In doing so, Obama is signaling a willingness to sharply critique his successor, President Donald Trump, and fill what many Democrats see as a national leadership void. On Wednesday, he held a virtual town hall event with young people to discuss policing and the civil unrest that has followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Obama rejected a debate he said he'd seen come up in "a little bit of chatter on the internet" about "voting versus protests, politics and participation versus civil disobedience and direct action."

"This is not an either-or. This is a both, and to bring about real change," he said during the town hall hosted by his foundation's My Brother's Keeper Alliance, which supports young men of colour. "We both have to highlight a problem and make people in power uncomfortable, but we also have to translate that into practical solutions and laws that could be implemented and monitored and make sure we're following upon."

Obama called for turning the protests over Floyd's death into policy change to ensure safer policing and increased trust between communities and law enforcement. He urged "every mayor in the country to review your use of force policies" with their communities and "commit to report on planned reforms" before prioritising their implementation.

"We're in a political season, but our country is also at an inflection point," said Valerie Jarrett, a longtime friend and adviser to Obama. "Former president Obama is not going to shy away from that dialogue simply because he's not in office anymore."

During the roundtable, Obama drew parallels between the unrest sweeping America currently and protest movements of the 1960s. But he said polls show a majority of Americans supporting today's protesters and forming a "broad coalition" in a way much of the country didn't back then — despite some of the recent protests "having been marred by the actions of a tiny minority that engaged in violence."

AP