Obama: "My thoughts are with the police officers who were injured in last night's disturbances. ... My hope is that they can heal and get back to work as soon as possible."
Obama: "There's no excuse for the kind of violence we saw yesterday. It's counterproductive. ... They're not protesting, they're not making a statement. They're stealing. ... And they're destroying and undermining businesses and opportunities in their own communities that rob jobs ... of people in that area."
Obama: It's a handful of people taking advantage of the situation for their own purposes, and they should be treated as criminals.
Obama: Monday's riots distracted from peaceful protests that were constructive and thoughtful. "One burning building will be looped on television over and over and over again. The thousands of demonstrators who did it the right way will be lost in the discussion."
Obama: "What those community leaders and clergy and others were doing, that is a statement. That's the kind of organizing that needs to take place if we're going to tackle this problem."
Obama: "Since Ferguson and the task force we put together, we had seen too many instances of what appears to police officers interacting with individuals, primarily African-American urban poor, that raise troubling questions. And it comes up, it seems like, once a week now." He understands why people say it is a crisis.
Obama: "This is not new. We shouldn't pretend that it's new. The good news is that perhaps there's some newfound awareness because of social media and video cameras and so forth." There are challenges in policing these communities and we have to respond.
Obama: Proposals from post-Ferguson task force would make a difference in rebuilding trust and making sure that law enforcement officers can do their jobs better.