George W. Bush: Saddened by Grand Jury Decision in Garner Case

Former President George W. Bush says a New York grand jury's failure to indict the police officer for the death Eric Garner was "hard to understand."

In an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley, Bush said his reaction to watching video of the incident that led to Garner's death was "how sad."

"You know, the verdict was hard to understand," he said. "But I hadn't seen all the details -- but it's sad that race continues to play such an emotional, divisive part of life."

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Bush remembers "race riots with cities being burned in the 70’s but acknowledges that the United States has improved in race relations.

The former president recently had dinner with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during which they discussed the racial tension that followed the Darren Wilson trial (who was not indicted in the death of Michael Brown)

"We talked about this subject, and yeah -- she just said, you gotta understand that there are a lot of black folks that are incredibly, more and more, distrusting of law enforcement," Bush said. "Which is a shame, because law enforcement's job is to protect everybody."

You're right Mr. President. It is the job of the police to protect everybody.

photo via CNN