In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Attorney General William Barr publicly recognized that people of color were routinely treated unfairly within the US policing and justice system.
Barr told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas, “I do think it is a widespread phenomenon that African American males, in particular, are treated with extra suspicion and maybe not given the benefit of the doubt.”
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest the inequities in the justice system in the last two months, spurred by a number of highly-publicized incidents, usually recorded on cell phones, in which police are shown abusing Black people or which resulted in the death of a person in custody.
The death of George Floyd as he was detained by police sparked many of these protests, and Barr says that Floyd’s death “is a catalyst for the kinds of changes that are needed.”
“Before the George Floyd incident I thought we were in a good place,” he said in the ABC interview. “I think that this episode in Minneapolis showed that we still have some work to do in addressing the distrust that exists in the African American community toward law enforcement.”