A Black Man Is Dead In South Bend — And Pete Buttigieg Knows He Messed Up

By Lauren Rearick


Mayor Pete Buttigieg understands he messed up.


It’s been 11 days since Eric Logan, a 54-year-old Black man from South Bend, Indiana, was shot and killed by South Bend Police Department Sergeant Ryan O'Neill, a white member of the police force. An investigation into the shooting remains ongoing.


In a question directed to Buttigieg, debate moderator Rachel Maddow pointed to continued acts of police violence that have occurred over the last five years In the
U.S.. “The police force in South Bend is currently 6 percent black in a city that is 26 percent black,” Maddow noted. “Why has that not improved over your two terms as mayor?”


“I couldn’t get it done,” Buttigieg mentioned, later adding: “The officer mentioned he was attacked with a knife nevertheless he did not have his body camera on. It’s a disaster and we’re hurting. And I may walk you through all the things that we have done as a community, all the steps that we’ve took, from bias training to de-escalation, yet it didn't save the life of Eric Logan. And As soon as I look into his mother's eyes, I have to face the fact that nothing that I mention will bring him back.”


The presidential hopeful noted that South Bend’s sobs for an end to police violence aren’t unique, and that’s a problem. “This is a supply that is facing our community, and thus several other communities around the country,” he mentioned. “And up until we move policing out from the shadow of systematic racism, whichever this particular incident teaches us, we’ll be left with the bigger issue of the fact that there really is a wall of mistrust put up one racist act a time.”


“Not just from what's happened in the past, although what's happening around the nation in the present. It threatens the well being of every community and I am decided to bring about a day any time once a white person driving car and also a black person driving a car, if they visualize a policeman approaching, they feel the exact same thing, a feeling not of fear, although of safety. I am decided to bring that day about.”


In response, Rep. Eric Swalwell told Buttigieg he should fire the police chief if the officer who fired the shots didn't have his body camera while in the incident.


"So under Indiana law this will be investigated, and there will be accountability for the officer involved," Buttigieg mentioned, before being interrupted.


nevertheless you're the mayor, you must fire the chief, if that's the policy and someone died," Swalwell responded.


As The New York Times reported, any time Buttigieg took office in 2012 he fired Darryl Boykins, a black police chief that was accused of reportedly trying to tape members of the South Bend Police Department engaging in racist conversations about Boykins. Boykins was replaced by two white police officers, CNN reported, and then some South Bend community members told WDNU that Buttigieg’s response to the scenario should have resulted in his impeachment.


Some on social media were quick to share their approval for Buttigieg’s response, and tweeted that he “answered truthfully” and his choice to not comment pending the investigation demonstrated an ability to lead. Nevertheless, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery proposed that the question should have focused on why police diversity keeps it up and continues to worsen, and noted, “The question on police diversity for Mayor Pete isn’t ‘why hasn’t it gotten better?’ The question is ‘why has it gotten worse.’”