Ben Carson's Idea of Protesting a Faulty Toilet Installation to the Plumbers' Union
PoliceBen Carson on the Baltimore Protests: If You Wouldn't Protest a Bad Plumber, You Shouldn't ProtestPolice
BY Jason Zengerle
http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2015/04/ben-carson-baltimore-plumber-police.html?mbid=synd_ypolitics
Before Ben Carson was a hero to Tea Partiers, he was a hero to African-Americans—nowhere more so than in his adopted hometown of Baltimore. When he wasn't in the operating room at Johns Hopkins, Carson, a retired Pediatric neurosurgeon, could often be found at Baltimore inner-city schools telling the remarkable story of how he rose from dire poverty to become a world-renowned doctor. He was even immortalized in an episode of The Wire. Earlier today, Carson—who is expected to officially announce that he's running for president next Monday—spoke to me about the unrest in Baltimore. A condensed and edited transcript of our conversation is below....
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Do you think that's indicative of a larger problem?
It's certainly indicative of some problems. In no way am I saying that all the police are righteous, by no stretch of the imagination. And clearly we need to be dealing with that. But recognize that we're dealing with a people problem. When you look at the Baltimore police force, it's about as diverse as any police force you're going to find in a big city. There may even be more minorities on that police force than there are non-minorities. The point being that inappropriate behavior comes in all colors, it's not specific. And just because it comes by one color or another color doesn't mean it should be ignored. It needs to be dealt with.
We need to get to the bottom of any problems of discrimination. But the larger issue here is, how do you react when something is wrong? If you have an unpleasant experience with a plumber, do you go out and declare a war on all plumbers? Or teachers or doctors? Of course not. And it makes no sense to do that with police either.
I shall keep that in mind the next time my plumber, Clint, kills one of my neighbors by... oh, breaking their spines, suffocating them, or shooting them with a gun they thought "wuz a taser"
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