"Systemic Racism" A "Stain On Our Nation's Soul": Joe Biden

The President called for "confronting head on systemic racism and the racial disparities that exist in policing and our criminal justice system".

US President Joe Biden called systemic racism a "stain on our nation's soul" in a televised address to the nation Tuesday after a white former police officer was convicted of murdering a Black man during an arrest. Biden spoke out after a jury in the Midwestern city of Minneapolis found Derek Chauvin guilty of intentionally suffocating handcuffed George Floyd as he lay defenseless, with the officer's knee pressing on his neck for more than nine minutes. The President called for "confronting head on systemic racism and the racial disparities that exist in policing and our criminal justice system" -- but pleaded for protesters to steer clear of violence. "There are those who will seek to exploit the raw emotions in the moment -- agitators and extremists who have no interest in social justice," he warned. "We can't let them succeed."