Dallas Police Chief David Brown held a press conference Monday to update the country on his department’s investigation into the shootings following Thursday night’s protest of police brutality. Brown said that too much of the nation’s challenges are left to the police to solve, including mental health, drug addiction, and single-parent homes:
“What we’re doing, what we’re trying to accomplish here, is above challenging. We’re asking cops to do too much in this country. We are. We’re just asking us to do too much. Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding? Let the cops handle it. Not enough drug addiction funding? Let give it to the cops. Here in Dallas, we got a loose dog problem. Let’s have cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail? Give it to the cops. 70% of the African American community is being raised by single women. Let’s give it to the cops to solve that as well. That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.”
When asked what advice he would give black men, Brown replied with an open call to join the police force. “Become a part of the solution, serve your community,” he said. “We’re hiring. Get off that protest line and put an application in. We’ll put you in your neighborhood – we will help you resolve some of the problems you are protesting about.”
Brown himself has lost a son, a brother, and a partner to gun violence. His son was gunned down by police officers after he shot first. On Friday, Brown spoke to the press about the shootings, stating, “All I know is that this must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.” He echoed those sentiments again Monday, promising, “This tragedy, this incident, will not discourage us from continuing the pace of urgency in chasing and reforming policing in America.”
(Via Washington Post & CBS Dallas)