WASHINGTON: President Bar­ack Obama and a leading presidential candidate – Hillary Clinton – on Wednesday stressed the need for redefining race relations in America as thousands protested for peace in the riot-torn city of Baltimore.

In an interview to a popular radio show, President Obama urged police departments in his country “to hold accountable people when they do something wrong”.

And in a speech at the Columbia University, New York, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said there was “something profoundly wrong” with the American justice system “when a third of all black men face the prospect of prison at some point during their lifetimes”.

Also read: Obama calls for racial harmony as Baltimore burns

She noted that although the United States had a black president, “African American men are still far more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes, and sentenced to longer prison terms than are meted out to their white counterparts”.

President Obama also referred to last year’s riots in Ferguson while stressing the need for a “serious soul searching”.

“Since Ferguson, we have seen too many instances of what appears to be police officers interacting with individuals -- primarily African-American, often poor – in ways that raise troubling questions,” he said.

Violence broke out in Ferguson, Missouri, in August last year after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black, by police.

He said that the American nation needed to address the issues that pitch black youths against a mainly white police force.

“We don’t just pay attention when a young man gets shot or has his spine snapped,” he said. “I think there are police departments that have to do some soul-searching.”

He also underlined the need for both black and white communities to do some soul-searching. “I think we as a country have to do some soul-searching. This is not new. It’s been going on for decades,” he added.

The president warned that problems would continue if the nation failed to deal with underlying social issues such as poor education, drugs and limited job opportunities that stir violence.

Hillary Clinton, a leading aspirant of the 2016 presidential elections, also emphasised this point.

“We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in America,” she said. “We have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance, and these recent tragedies should galvanise us to come together as a nation to find our balance again.”

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2015

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