“At a time when our country is feeling so divided I think it is important that the country’s leadership come together across party lines, despite significant differences to emphasize our shared desire to unify the country”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. I know we’ll make it because of what I’ve experienced in my own life, what I’ve seen of this country and its people as President. Bush also spoke, saying the “slain officers were the best among us”. The Vice President and First Lady are also attending the service, as is former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush.
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“If we’re honest, perhaps we’ve heard prejudice in our own heads and felt it in our own hearts”. “I’m not naive”, he said. “We wonder if an African American community that feels unfairly targeted by police and police departments that feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs, can ever understand each others experience”, he continued.
“I know Americans are struggling right now with what we have witnessed in the past week”, Obama said.
Obama and Biden met Monday with police chiefs, sheriffs and rank-and-file officers to discuss adopting a series of reforms that were drafted by a White House task force on policing, as well as how to restore trust between police officers and the communities they are sworn to serve and protect. “No. The reward comes in knowing that our entire way of life in America depends on the rule of law, that the maintenance of that law is a hard and daily labor, that in this country we don’t have soldiers in the streets or militias setting the rules”.
He said that while police officers started their days like everyone else, their work was not typical.
A Dallas police officer picks up balloons and flowers in front of images of the 5 slain officers after a candlelight vigil at Dallas City Hall following the multiple police shootings in Dallas, Texas, July 11, 2016. “I’ve spoken at too many memorials during the course of this presidency”.
Following a touching musical ode to the fallen, who were honored with five chairs left empty save for an American flag and an officer’s hat, George W. Bush was introduced by Senator John Cornyn.
Obama, the first black USA president, has drawn criticism in the past from some in law enforcement for his tone in the aftermath of shootings by officers. “But America, we know bias remains”.
“At times, it seems like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together”, he said.
The president went Tuesday to Dallas, where on Thursday five police officers – charged with protecting the safety of demonstrators in a protest march – were slain by a sniper motivated, in his words, to kill white people.
The five who died were shot during a protest against the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. I also want to welcome Vice President and Dr. Biden. “Argument turns too easily into animosity”, Bush said.
“I see what’s possible when we recognize that we are all one American family, all deserving of equal treatment and respect. We want the unity of hope, affection and high goal”.
While some disapprove of the anti-police brutality movement’s name, Black Lives Matter, Obama said all should be able to empathize with the pain felt by families whose loved ones have recently been killed by police officers. “To renew our unity, we only need to remember our values”, he said.
“Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions”, Bush said.
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“We know there is evil in this world”.
