Thursday, May 21, 2015

Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Delivers Statement to Press TV: 'Obama Refused to Deal With Oppression of Blacks: Journalist'
Mon May 18, 2015 5:36PM
presstv.ir

To listen to this statement delivered to Press TV by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, just click on the website below:
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/05/18/411695/Obama-police-brutality-military-equipment

US President Barack Obama has failed to address widespread police brutality and oppression against African Americans, says Abayomi Azikiwe.

US President Barack Obama has failed to address widespread police brutality and oppression against African Americans and other minorities across the country, a journalist in Detroit says.

“The president has refused, during the entire tenure of his office, to address the ongoing racism and national oppression against African Americans, against Latinos, the growing poverty, police repression, and unemployment,” said Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire.

“Until the White House or the US Congress addresses these issues, the conditions can only get worse,” Azikiwe told Press TV on Monday.

The White House said on Monday that Obama plans to impose new restrictions on the use of some military equipment by police departments, following unrest in US cities over the deaths of black men at the hands of mostly white police officers.

The ban is a policy reversal for Obama, who indicated last year that programs by the federal government to provide military-style gear to local police departments would remain in place because of their broader contribution to public safety.

The White House said the federal government will no longer fund or provide tracked armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft or vehicles, firearms or ammunition of .50-caliber or higher, grenade launchers, bayonets or camouflage uniforms.

The ban is part of Obama’s efforts to ease tensions between law enforcement departments and minority communities in reaction to the protests over police violence across the US.

He is taking the action after a task force he created in January decided that police departments should be barred from using federal funds to acquire military-style equipment.

The militarization of police and use of heavy-handed tactics against protesters, especially in communities of color like Ferguson and Baltimore, have become a major concern for many in the United States.

“I believe the announcement by President Barack Obama is too little, too late,” Azikiwe said.

The oppression of minorities by the white power structure in the US can’t be “obliterated by making these pronouncements that have very little impact on what is going on, on the ground,” he added.

“The situation that developed last summer in Ferguson and just recently in Baltimore speaks volumes in regard to the state of race relations in the United States,” he noted.

Large-scale protests have been held across the US after a series of high-profile incidents of white police officers killing unarmed African-American men, most notably Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, and most recently Freddie Grey in Baltimore, Maryland.

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