Obama cut short a trip to Europe to be at the memorial and meet with the families of the slain officers to offer his support. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas spoke at the service but did not travel with the president.
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U.S. President Barack Obama attended a memorial for the Dallas police officers who were killed last week and urged Americans to push for the change society needs.
As much as those words have comforted blacks, they have rankled numerous nation’s men and women in blue. Some have described the remarks as an insult, an all-too-quick condemnation before all the facts are in and a failure to acknowledge the thousands of cops who do a good job and routinely risk their lives.
Mr Biden said the President asked the police officials at the meeting: “Fellas, what do you think I’m not doing?”
The president has spoken often about the tensions between police and minority communities – not just in the last week but also after the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Freddie Gray.
“The conversation that took place around this table is very different than the one that you see on a day-to-day or hourly basis in the media”, Obama said.
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama will quickly return to the delicate balancing act of supporting law enforcement while addressing concerns of bias from some of the communities they serve.
It comes as funerals begin for the five police officers shot dead by a sniper in Dallas last week.
The service featured five portraits of the officers and five empty chairs.
Those heroes were represented in the audience not only by their families, but by five seats, draped in black, with a folded American flag and a policeman’s cap. “To wage this battle against violence and separatism, we must promote unity between police and those who protest them”. “That’s the America I know”. “What have you not heard me say?” Does he really believe it and feel it? At one point, even FLOTUS looked at him and gave an uncomfortable smile.
The president views the attacks in Dallas as a hate crime, an aide told the Dallas Morning News. News 8 has also reported on dozens of officers who have left the department for nearby cities that offer more pay.
Obama said there might be a need to develop a set of practices to ensure that investigations are carried out effectively and fairly for all parties involved.
Pinal County (Arizona) Sheriff Paul Babeu, a longtime Obama critic whose jurisdiction sits between Phoenix and Tucson, said the president has undermined law enforcement throughout his tenure by raising issues of race and casting aspersions about officers in highly publicized police encounters.
The Gates incident also irritated Travis Yates, a major with the Tulsa, Oklahoma, police department and editor of lawofficer.com. Aiming straight at those of us who have suggested a civil perusal of racial disparity is actually harmed by BLM’s excesses, his scolding was firm: “We can not simply turn away and dismiss those in peaceful protest as troublemakers or paranoid”, he instructed.
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The distrust has only deepened with each police shooting of a black man as they see the president or one of his representatives attend services for the victims.
