Ben Carson said Wednesday the police officer who shot and killed Laquan McDonald was “obviously a bad apple.” But Carson was adamant that entire police departments should not be demonized for the actions of a few.
“That does not mean that all policemen are like that. We need to move away from the attitude that because you have a few bad apples in this profession or that, that we should paint them all in that broad stroke of evil,” the Republican presidential candidate said. “It’s just not true.”
He then went on to discuss ways that America can fix frustration in inner cities by creating opportunities for people in low-income situations. Carson, who grew up in a single-family home in Detroit, gave the example of someone who is fined for a moving violation, but can’t afford the ticket.
“The next thing you know, there’s a warrant out for your arrest, and you wind up getting fired,” said Carson, who offered his own solution to problems like this.
“We need to find ways to accommodate different situations in our society and I think when we do that, the level of frustration probably goes down,” he said.
Carson is headed to Chicago Thursday morning, where protestors have filled the streets asking Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down, where he will participate in a private roundtable meeting with pastors in the city.
The retired neurosurgeon also pledged to stand by Donald Trump if the businessman is elected as the GOP nominee.
“I will always stand behind who the people choose. It’s not about me,” Carson said.
He also reacted Trump’s assertion that he was responsible for Carson’s slipping poll numbers.
Trump has said that his now infamously colorful belt-flipping reenactment of Carson’s violent youth helped lead to the doctor’s slide in recent polling.
“I don’t know. It could have had something to do with it,” Cason said, adding, that the presidential race is “a marathon not a sprint.”