Hillary Clinton said that this week’s deadly shootings of black men at the hands of police officers “should worry every single American” and called for white people to walk in the shoes of African-Americans in order to learn empathy and promote unity.
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Clinton appeared at the church to talk about the tragedies this week – first the police killings of two black men, and then the fatal shooting of five police officers in Dallas.
Addressing the AME Convention, Democratic presidential nominee Ms Clinton said, “there is something wrong with our country”.
Hillary Clinton is holding her first campaign event of the year with Vice President Joe Biden as the nation confronts a recurring issue: the rash of police-related shootings.
Both the Clinton and Trump campaigns announced that events scheduled for Friday were canceled in light of the attack. She drew praise and standing ovations throughout her speech this evening during the African Methodist Episcopal convention in Center City.
And she asked white Americans to try to understand the experience of black Americans and “to imagine what it would feel like if people followed us around stores, or locked their vehicle doors when we walked past”.
Clinton discussed how America should respond to the shootings, but she also tried to show that she understands the police violence facing black Americans at a visceral level.
“All of us need to acknowledge that this is about more than just one or two recent incidents”, Sen. “We need to be bringing people together, and I’ve said on the campaign trail repeatedly, we need more love and kindness, and I know that’s not usually what presidential candidates say, but I believe it, and I’m going to be speaking about it from now, all the way into the White House and beyond”.
“I mourn for the officers shot while doing their sacred duty to protect peaceful protesters, for their families, and all who serve with them, “wrote Clinton”.
‘There is too much violence…too much senseless killing, too many people dead who shouldn’t be, ‘ she said.
“There is clear evidence that African Americans are much more likely to be killed in police incidents than any other group of Americans”, Clinton said. “We must do more to have national guidelines about the use of force by police, especially deadly force”.
“But all these things can be true at once”, she said.
“We are unfortunately in the grip of some very divisive and hateful rhetoric”, Clinton said.
Some in the audience at the church conference were pleased that Clinton identified a plan to address police brutality and bias, and others were skeptical, not necessarily of her will, but of the country’s readiness to move forward with her initiatives. “We need training”, said Cordelia Mitchell from Jacksonville, Fla.
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“Racism has existed for so many years”, she said. She also named Brandon Tate-Brown, who was shot and killed by Philadelphia police in 2014, and whose mother was reportedly in attendance during the speech.
