President Obama: ‘Deep unfairness’ in how laws enforced

President Obama said Thursday that many Americans feel there’s a “deep unfairness” about how laws are applied on a day-to-day basis, responding to the news a day earlier of a New York City police officer who was not indicted for choking an unarmed black man.

{mosads}Delivering an address to mark the College Opportunity Day of Action, Obama said he spoke to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio before his speech and said he “commended him for his words” on the news. 

On Wednesday, a grand jury declined to indict police officer Daniel Panteleo in the death of Eric Garner, saying there was not enough evidence to charge the officer. 

While Obama stopped short of weighing in on the case, he said he intends to “take more steps” with leaders like de Blasio “in the months ahead” to make sure people have confidence that police and law enforcement are “serving everybody equally.” 

“There’s the larger questions of restoring a sense of common purpose,” the president said. 

Obama, who devoted most of his speech to education and making sure that young Americans go to college, said the country needs to make sure everyone has “access to the possibilities of success.”

“At some level everybody is our kid, everybody is our responsibility,” he said. ‘We are going to give back to everybody.”