Philadelphia mayor sees trust gap

Mayor Michael Nutter (D) of Philadelphia on Sunday said cities have to do better to deal with the lack of trust between their police departments and their citizens.

{mosads}Nutter, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said that the common thread between Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner’s in Staten Island, N.Y., was that large black men died after encountering police.

“We’ve had two of the worst weeks in American history in recent times,” Nutter said.

“You in essence have the citizens who want to be protected, who are now increasingly afraid of the police. And you have some police officers who are increasingly afraid of the community.”

Nutter said that increased training could help close that trust gap, but that mayors and police can’t relax their standards for battling crime, either.