that basically case closed? well, i think that what we have to do is find a way to more constructively engage with communities and i think that some of that is happening in staten island now. there is an extraordinary commander of precinct of where this occurred who is doing tremendous work and engaging with the community and these things take time. but i think that progress is being made. but i think that and what i talked about before in terms of trying to create an atmosphere in which we reduce the number of contacts between police and community that give rise to potential incidents that escalate beyond control, to improve the training of police officers so that they engage with all citizens regardless of
one of the things we need to be seriously considering is why or whether the federal government should be continuing to provide federal funding to police departments across this country that have demonstrated records of problems with abuse of force, abuse of use of force and racial discrimination. the federal government does not have to continue to provide those kind of resources and in the legal defense funds opinion, it should not provide those resources to police departments that have such a demonstrated record. the legal defense fund has called on the federal government to look into exercising that kind of fiscal power to encourage local police departments to really get their acts and houses in order. i wanted to ask you about staten island in particular because i knew you grew up there and your uncle was part of a celebrated case to desegregate the fire department there. yes, i did grow up in staten island. my family has long roots there. it s actually my cousin, paul,
you know, you had the state look at what the officer did there, darren wilson. you have federal civil rights investigation going on there. but, you know, all signs are that it s probably not going to result in a federal civil rights case. but, the justice department is separately investigating the entire ferguson police department and it may well result in what we may see here in cleveland shortly which is some kind of an agreement to change their policies, try to reduce these situations and make them less likely to happen. this is certainly a lot on eric holder s plate as he prepares to have this transition and they have the nomination, of course, of loretta lynch which will be taken up in the senate come january. thank you very much, pete williams. a busy day for you. that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. thanks for being with us. remember, follow us online and on twitter and my colleague joins me for what s coming up.
julie, you ve watch this president up close for a long time. this case, unlike even ferguson, is so categorical and so unquestioned by almost everyone, the universely republicans and kathleen morris on the hill and john boehner now and other republicans with the exception of only a few outliars. everyone watches that tape seems to say, what was the grand jury thinking? what can the government do? what can the white house do? this is a tricky case for the president because, as you said, so much universal opinion about this. yet, the president has been very careful to not weigh in and take a position on grand jury opinions. to not take a stance on actions of police officers. so, if he holds with that pattern, you ll see him tread very careful in this case. yet, there has to be some way for him to just inject some emotion into this. some kind of personal feeling
go home until you re no longer pregnant. and the guts of this case is that she was not asking for anything special. other than not to lift heavy packages, which was not part of her regular duty. as your case laid out in court yesterday. male drivers who were found intoxicated. for violating the law, not a medical condition, were automatically given other jobs while they no longer had their driver s license. it was part of u.p.s. s policy, while those people could get with working. so did a lot of other people who had off-duty medical conditions or accidents or injuries. but never pregnant women. when we listen to these oral arguments, according to the reporting from pete williams and others from the court yesterday, there was quite a diversity of opinion on the court. i know it s awkward to talk about this before you get a