Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is viewed favorably by around 40 percent of liberals and white Democrats, according to CNN polling. But as of last week, he was embroiled in the national wave of racial tensions over policing, after a white policeman shot and killed a black man in South Bend, Ind., where Buttigieg is mayor.
Sgt. Ryan O’Neill, the cop who shot 54-year-old Eric Jack Logan outside an apartment complex after claiming Logan pulled a knife, didn’t turn on his bodycam during the confrontation. Much of the black community there doesn’t believe the officer’s account. But O’Neill, who was investigated in 2008 over his alleged use of racist remarks, including referring to an African American woman as “black meat,” is not at the center of the controversy.
This is about Buttigieg. It is about his handling of a police force that is almost 90 percent white in a town that is 40 percent black and brown. It is about a black community whose deep mistrust of Buttigieg goes back at least eight years, and it is about media coverage that lavished praise on Buttigieg while largely ignoring his strained relationship with people of color — particularly when it comes to policing.
That’s especially galling after Philadelphians, including myself, fought to get 72 police officers assigned to desk duty pending an investigation of racist posts the officers allegedly published to Facebook. It’s insulting when black people continue to fight racism in policing in cities across the country. And it’s baffling because, in all the coverage I’ve seen about Buttigieg, much of it has centered on the fact that, if elected, he would be the first openly gay president. More important to me is his relationship with people of color in South Bend, the city where, as mayor, Buttigieg has appointed only white police chiefs (two total).