Democratic Mayor Buttigieg faces growing fallout over police shooting in his city

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Sunday faced growing fallout over a fatal police shooting in South Bend, an incident that has exposed simmering racial tensions in the Indiana city where he is mayor and which is complicating his presidential ambitions.

Buttigieg answered questions at a frequently raucous and angry meeting with South Bend residents in which he was heckled, booed and screamed at by a minority of audience members. He admitted efforts to make the city’s police force more diverse had failed, “and I take responsibility for that.”

Buttigieg appeared a week after the fatal shooting of a black man, Eric Logan, by a white police officer exposed longstanding accusations among many African Americans in South Bend that elements within the city’s predominately white police force are racist.

The mayor, who is white, has been struggling to attract support for his presidential bid among black voters, a vital constituency in a Democratic nominating contest. The police shooting has laid bare anger among many in South Bend’s black community, not just about police conduct, but a belief that many African American neighborhoods have been left behind while Buttigieg has revitalized more affluent, whiter areas.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, a clearly emotional Buttigieg said anger and frustration over race relations in the city had been “hurled” at him. He said he did not know if it was smart politically to open himself up to such audiences, but “it’s my city, and I love my city. It’s my job to face it.”

He also took to the stage just hours after another fatal shooting in the city, which left one person dead and nine injured in a bar early on Sunday morning. Read more

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