After
the Department of Justice announced it was opening a civil rights
investigation into the shooting death of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, Hillary Clinton issued the following statement:
"The
death of Alton Sterling is a tragedy, and my prayers are with his
family, including his five children. From Staten Island to Baltimore,
Ferguson to Baton Rouge, too many African American families mourn the
loss of a loved one from a police-involved incident. Something is
profoundly wrong when so many Americans have reason to believe that our
country doesn’t consider them as precious as others because of the color
of their skin. "I am glad the Department of Justice has agreed to a
full and thorough review of this shooting. Incidents like this one have
undermined the trust between police departments and the communities they
serve. We need to rebuild that trust. We need to ensure justice is
served. That begins with common sense reforms like ending racial
profiling, providing better training on de-escalation and implicit bias,
and supporting municipalities that refer the investigation and
prosecution of police-involved deaths to independent bodies. All over
America, there are police officers demonstrating how to protect the
public without resorting to unnecessary force. We need to learn from and
build on those examples. "Progress is possible if we stand together and
never waver in our fight to secure the future that every American
deserves."
