By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Former FBI Director James Comey began his lecture series on “law enforcement and race” at Howard University on Wednesday evening, describing a growing divide between police and people of color and blaming President Trump for muddying the issue with distractions.
Comey said the U.S. has lost some of its focus on the tension between law enforcement and people of color, partly blaming Trump.
“I have noticed that since the election of our current president, [the issues] have not had the place in American life that I saw in late 2014, throughout ‘15, throughout ‘16,” Comey said, according to Newsweek. “I think the most likely explanation is that issues involving the new administration, including the emergence of appalling voices of white nationalism and racism, have crowded out the topic of law enforcement from American public life.”
Comey added in his third public speech since being fired: “Although I think it is vital that we confront racism when it comes at us in the form of torch marches or racism or hate crimes, it is critical that we not lose sight of the issue that we began discussing in earnest two and a half years ago.”
Comey encouraged frank discussions between people with different viewpoints.
“My goal is to try to model, especially for students, how to have a conversation about really hard, emotional things,” he said. “It’s only by all of us adopting that attitude, the attitude that, ‘Hey, you could be right and I could be wrong,’ that we have the best chance of learning something in a deep away.” He added, “We are in a dangerous place in this country right now, where we hate too quickly, where disagreement becomes anger too quickly.”
