In this April 28, 2015, photo, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks during a town hall meeting with Puerto Rico’s Republican Party in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

(Politico) – Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush on Thursday urged Americans to not lose perspective in the aftermath of the Baltimore riots, and offered his own policy prescription for simmering tensions in poor communities.

“A young man died and that’s a tragedy for his family,” Bush said about 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who died last week after suffering severe injuries while in police custody. “This is not just a statistic; this is a person who died.”

He also addressed the underlying roots of anger in some dominantly black communities by pivoting to a conservative platform – welfare and education reform, mainly – that might start to change “the pathologies being built around people who are poor, that they’re going to stay poor.”

“How do you create a system of support that doesn’t create dependency? That’s got to be where the federal government plays a role,” Bush said during a conversation with National Review editor Rich Lowry.

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