Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio Wednesday praised the nation's law enforcement officers but said that "I also know that there are communities in this country where minority communities and the police department have a terrible relationship.
"The overwhelming majority of the men and women who serve us in law enforcement are incredible people," Rubio said at a CNN town hall meeting in South Carolina. "Who every single day put their lives potentially on the line for our safety and security."
In his response to a voter's question on how to improve race relations in the country, the Florida senator acknowledged that he knew a young African-American man who has been pulled over many times by police.
"I personally know someone who happens to be a police officer and a young African-American male who told me that he's been pulled over seven, eight times in the last few years and never gets a ticket," Rubio said. "What is he supposed to think? He gets pulled over, never gets a ticket.
"No one has any explanation. What is he supposed to think?
"I also know in this country a significant number of young African-American males who feel as if they are treated differently than the rest of society.
"Here's the bottom line," the first-term senator said. "Whether you agree with them or not, I happen to have seen this happen. Whether you agree or not, if a significant percentage of the American family believes that they are being treated differently than everyone else, we have a problem.
"We have to address it as a society and as a country."
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