Face in the News: Race in America
WASHINGTON (CBS News) - Tensions remained high over the weekend and protests continued across the country as public anger simmered over controversial grand jury decisions in New York and Missouri.
Demonstrations blocked traffic in the streets of New York City, where a grand jury last week declined to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man.
New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton said Sunday on "Face The Nation" that while video footage of the deadly incident was indeed disturbing, he respects the grand jury's decision.
"We have an expression, lawful but awful," Bratton told host Bob Schieffer. "The criminal courts have decided, our district attorneys, grand jury has decided there were no criminal actions involved."
Bratton's comments were covered by the Associated Press, The New York Times, Bloomberg News, The Hill, Newsday, the New York Post, Time, MSNBC, and The Guardian.
NAACP President Cornell William Brooks criticized the grand jury's decision and called for an overhaul of policing procedures. He also said that racial issues were clearly still on the front burner.
"The election of Barack Obama may speak to our capacity as a nation to look beyond race," Brooks said. "It does not necessarily speak to the reality of race in this country. Racism is alive and well."
His comments were picked up by the Associated Press and The Hill.
On the issue of policing, we also spoke to Chief Scott Thomson. He leads the police force in Camden, N.J., which is considered one of the most dangerous cities in America. Local officials there rebuilt the department from the bottom up last year and have emphasized commuting-first policing tactics.
"In less than 24 months, we have begun a remarkable transformation of taking streets that were once controlled by criminals and drug dealers now being occupied by children riding their bicycles and families enjoying the front steps." Thomson said.
His comments were covered by the Philadelphia Inquirer and the South Jersey Courier Post.
Finally, the other big news of the week is the highly anticipated report coming from the Senate Intelligence Committee on harsh interrogation tactics used by the CIA during the Bush administration. The report is expected to say that "enhanced interrogation techniques" like waterboarding did not produce useful intelligence and that the CIA deliberately lied to Congress about the top-secret program.
Gen. Michael Hayden, who was CIA director during Bush's second term, strongly rebutted these claims Sunday and said publicly the controversial report will "motivate people to attack Americans and American facilities overseas." His comments were covered by the Washington Post and The Atlantic.
Finally, we spoke with British Ambassador Peter Westmacott about the royal visit happening this week. Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, will attend events in New York and Washington. Our conversation with the ambassador was covered by The Hill.