Former President Obama: 'Let's Not Excuse Violence ... Or Participate In It'

Former President Barack Obama said the protests in cities across the nation in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis under a police officer's knee "represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States."
But he wrote in a post Monday on Medium that the "the small minority of folks who've resorted to violence" at many demonstrations are "putting innocent people at risk, compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause."