CNN: Lawmakers say tensions between police, African-American communities aren't going away soon

via screen grab

By Eric Bradner, May 3, 2015, CNN

Washington (CNN)Recent high-profile clashes between African-American communities and law enforcement have forced national and local lawmakers alike to acknowledge that such problems aren't going away anytime soon.

And a new poll finds that Americans overwhelmingly expect additional racial disturbances this summer.

All told, the situation has become a national crisis, House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday.

"I think that if you look at what's happened over the course of the last year, you just got to scratch your head," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

In the wake of the latest violent protests in Baltimore, where 25-year-old Freddie Gray died under mysterious circumstances while in police custody, lawmakers are facing increasingly difficult questions about what the federal government can do to ease tensions that have simmered in some cities for decades.

More:  www.cnn.com