WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama urged his nation on Tuesday to do some “soul searching” over racial violence as authorities imposed a weeklong night curfew in Baltimore after a night of riots, burning and looting.

“This has been going on for a long time,” President Obama said, while asking his nation to do some “soul searching” about equal opportunity, poverty, and other problems, which are partly responsible for triggering such violence.

During a White House news conference with the Prime Minister of Japan, Mr Obama said he had formed a task force to make recommendations following recent riots in Missouri and New York.

Also read: Police targeted, stores looted in Baltimore riots

But he also condemned all-night rioting and looting, which undermined peaceful protesters making “legitimate” complaints about problems in Baltimore.

“One burning building will be looped on television over and over and over again and the ... protesters who did it the right way will be lost in the discussion.”

President Obama also offered condolences to Freddie Gray’s family and said police conduct in urban areas must be addressed.

He said it was “understandable” that civil rights and community leaders would call police-related deaths of black men a national crisis.

“This is a crisis,” he said. “This is not new, we should not pretend that it’s new.”

Mr Obama said that poverty, drugs, and lack of public investment had eroded people’s trust in law enforcement.

The president reminded his nation that “sending police to do the dirty work of containing” protesters after a violent event would not help”.

We don’t just pay attention to these communities when a CVS burns,” he said, referring to an arson attack on a pharmacy in Baltimore.

Mr Obama’s stance, however, angered a US business tycoon and right-wing activist, Donald Trump. “Our great African American President hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore,” he tweeted.

Former secretary of state and a 2016 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said she was “praying for peace and safety for all in Baltimore, & for Freddie Gray’s family — his death is a tragedy that demands answers.”

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2015

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