Buttigieg spotlights racial disparity, policing

Dem hopeful meets black voters in NLV

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg tackled issues of racial disparity as he met with Nevada’s communities of color Saturday, but the small-town Indiana mayor encountered tough questions and skepticism from some voters.

Buttigieg met in the afternoon with about a dozen black voters and community leaders at a restaurant in North Las Vegas. Attendees asked him how he would address racial disparities, particularly in the criminal justice system, and assure black voters they aren’t taken for granted.

Buttigieg, who has had to address while campaigning the shooting death of an African-American man in his city by a white police officer, acknowledged the disparities and pledged that his election would be a mandate for action.

“This is a not a safe country until we get to the day when a black driver, a black man driving in particular, who sees a police car going by, feels, not a sense of fear but a sense of safety,” the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said. “A white driver, when you see the red and blue lights in the rearview mirror, will usually be a little bit annoyed and wonder how much the ticket’s going to be — not grip the steering wheel fearing for their lives.”

He called for federal standards for police bias and de-escalation training that is tied to federal funding, with a national conversation, especially among white people, about white privilege and white supremacy.

Donna Darden, a 65-year-old Democrat and black woman who took a full page of notes during the meeting, asked Buttigieg what he would do to address white supremacy in police departments.

The mayor said white supremacy will destroy America and has zero place in policing. He also said white people need to have a conversation about white supremacy and it can’t just be an issue that people of color have to grapple with.

“I’m not here saying I’ve got the cure. I don’t know anybody who can,” Buttigieg said. “What I am saying is that I have the fire of the sense of urgency about dealing with it.”

Darden, who looked unimpressed, smiled tightly after Buttigieg finished and said, “We’ll talk later.”

Buttigieg smiled and said, “We’re talking now.”

“I don’t think you want to hear what I have to say,” Darden said, before someone else changed the subject.

Darden, who is a member of the executive board of the Nevada State Democratic Party, said that she wasn’t satisfied with Buttigieg’s answers.

“This guy as a president, he needs to put in a zero-tolerance policy to these policemen,” Darden said. “They’ve been killing us for 400 years. Four hundred years. Don’t tell me it might be a difficult conversation. Don’t tell me, ‘Well, we’re going to get to that.’ No. ‘Gonna’ is gone.”

Buttigieg appeared at town halls and roundtables across Las Vegas, including a town hall with AsianAmerican voters Friday night. After his “black empowerment conversation” Saturday afternoon, the mayor attended a Latino community leader roundtable.