But smearing cops fires up his base.
Via Business Insider:
A top NYPD union official harshly criticized President Barack Obama’s reaction to a grand jury’s decision not to indict the white officer involved in the controversial death of 43-year-old Eric Garner.
Asked in a Fox News interview Wednesday if both Obama and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) threw police officers “under the bus,” the head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association had a one word reply.
“Absolutely,” he said.
Pat Lynch, the union’s president, was responding to a recent BET interview with Obama, who said the video tape of Garner’s death gives a new opportunity to discuss police relations with black men. On Dec. 3, a Staten Island grand jury decided to not indict the officer who in July was shown in a cellphone video appearing to place Garner in a chokehold before he died.
“It used to be folks would say, ‘Well, maybe blacks are exaggerating. Maybe, some of these situations aren’t what they describe,'” Obama told BET. “What we’ve now seen on television — for everybody to see — gives us the opportunity to finally have the conversation that as been a long time coming.”