Obama: We can't brush aside Baltimore issues

President Obama maintained his balanced approach to the Baltimore riots during a Wednesday radio interview — defending legitimate protest while condemning violence, drawing a line between good and bad policing.

"We've got to make sure that we don't brush this aside after the crisis is past," Obama told radio host Steve Harvey in an interview that largely echoed the president's comments Tuesday at the White House.

The issues include the deaths of young black men at the hands of police, and other allegations of police brutality.

"We've seen these police-related deaths too often now," Obama told Harvey, and "we have to address these problems in a serious way."

Peaceful protests are easy to understand, Obama said, but the looting, torching and rock throwing that scarred Baltimore on Monday night distracts people from the real issues — and hurts the very neighborhoods most in need.

"These are our communities that get torn up," Obama said.

Rioting and looting are "not a statement," he said. "That's not politics, that's not activism. That's criminal behavior."

Obama also paid tribute to the police officers injured during Monday's rioting, and said people sometimes expect too much of the police.

When you simply send officers into "decimated communities," Obama said, it's "not surprising you end up with a situation with enormous tension."