CRI听力:Obama Initiates Police Training Program

President Barack Obama spent the whole day Monday in meetings with his Cabinet, civil rights leaders and law enforcement officials at the White House.

"I think Ferguson laid there a problem that is not unique to St. Louis or that area, and is not unique to our time. And that is a simmering distrust that exist between too many police departments and too many communities of color."

Responding to the uproar created in the wake of the Ferguson Grand Jury decision, the President has requested over 260 million U.S. dollars to improve local police training across the country.

He's also calling for local officers to be equipped with body cameras, and has promised to set aside money to purchase some 50-thousand of them.

Obama is also promising to sign an executive order to review the process which has allowed local police departments to secure military-grade equipment, including armored personnel carriers, tanks and certain military aircraft.

Under existing rules, local police forces are given grants to purchase surplus military equipment from the US defense department, but has to use the equipment within a year of the purchase to justify its continued use at the local level.

Critics say this rule provides local police forces with the incentive to engage in heavy-handed crackdowns to be able to maintain their military-grade equipment.

In making the announcements on Monday, Obama is promising he wants to make a difference.

"I think there is a maturity of the conversation right now that can lead us to actually get some concrete results. And in the two years I have remaining as president, I'm going to make sure we follow through."

Outside the White House, protesters walked out of work and school from coast to coast on Monday in honor of 18-year old Michael Brown.
He is the unarmed black teenager who was killed this summer in the police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.

For CRI, this is Xiaohong reporting from Washington DC.