Former President George W. Bush says a New York grand jury 's decision not to indict the police officer who choked and killed 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 had n't seen all the details -- but it 's sad that race continues to play such an emotional , divisive part of life . '' RELATED : George Bush picks Jeb over 'sister-in-law ' Hillary in 2016 . Bush said the United States has improved since the 1970s , when he was young , and said he remembers `` race riots with cities being burned . '' Bush discussed the recent racial unrest that followed a Missouri grand jury 's failure to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson , who is white , in the shooting death of Michael Brown , who was black , over dinner with his former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice . `` We talked about this subject , and yeah -- she just said , you got ta 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 . ''
George W. Bush called the grand jury 's decision in Eric Garner 's death 'hard to understand ' The New York Police Department has been criticized for its handling of a police chokehold case involving an unarmed black man who died after being put into a holding cell by police. Bush said race relations have improved in the U.S. since he grew up in the 1970s .