By Micha Green, AFRO Washington, D.C. Editor, mgreen@afro.com

As the protests around Stephon Clark, the most recent unarmed Black man to be fatally shot by police, escalate and with the Tuesday decision to not charge the officers who killed Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge in 2016, several activists, lawmakers, and the media, are looking to the President Trump for answers.  Yet, on March 28, White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the fatal shootings of Black bodies by police a “local issue”.

An emotional Sequita Thompson, left, speaks out at a news conference, asking for justice in the police shooting death of her grandson Stephon Clark with attorney Ben Crump as Clark’s fiancée and the mother of their two small children, Salena Manni, 22, reacts at City Hall in Sacramento, Calif., on Monday, March 26, 2018. White House Press Secretary called cases like Clark’s, a “local issue” (Renee C. Byer/The Sacramento Bee via AP)

At the daily White House briefing, veteran political correspondent April Ryan asked about the president’s stance on news involving Clark and Sterling.

Sanders replied, “Certainly, a terrible incident.  This is something that is a local matter.  And that’s something that we feel should be left up to the local authorities at this point in time.”

When Ryan, who works for American Urban Radio, followed up with a question about the prolonged case of Eric Garner, who died after saying, “I can’t breathe,” on a New York City street as police held him in a chokehold, Sanders again denied federal responsibility on the matter.

“I’m not aware of any specific action.  Once again, these will be local matters that should be left up to the local authorities,” Sanders said.

The press briefing continued with business as usual, but Ryan was not satisfied by the answer.

“Fact: tension with the community and police have been an issue since were enslaved in this country. It was once whispered about but now we see fact with video footage. It is a national conversation,” she wrote on Twitter.

Ryan later wrote, “For America the reality is different from some other cultures.  We are taught for a police confrontation comply and then complain.  Unfortunately, sometimes that does not work.”

Between Ryan and networks, like CNN, tweeting about her question and Sander’s reply, many were stunned and disappointed by the viewpoint of apathy the Trump administration seemed to have about the fatal shootings of Blacks by police.

Outspoken CNN commentator, Angela Rye, weighed in on the issue of police shootings of unarmed Black men as local affairs.

“This is so awful,” Rye wrote on Twitter.  “I’m grateful @AprilDRyan continues to raise the important questions.  It’s clear the answers are on us,” she wrote, finishing off with the hashtag “no help from this administration”.