Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with representatives from eight police organizations Monday before flying the next day to Dallas to lead a memorial for five police officers killed by a suspect who said he wanted to kill whites, particularly white officers. But last week’s shootings set Obama’s challenge in stark relief.
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An interfaith choir opened Tuesday afternoon’s service, and the Dallas Police Choir sang the national anthem. I know how far we’ve come against impossible odds.
After Bush spoke, President Obama, who’s been criticized by some for an alleged lack of concern with police safety, delivered a heartfelt eulogy for the slain officers, in which he called their murders an act of “racial hatred”.
“It really takes us back to how important and how unsafe our jobs are”, said Ron Hooker, commander of the Houston Fire Department Honor Guard.
The demonstrators walked onto a bridge across the Mississippi River and chanted “I believe that we will win”.
“Certainly there is a climate now – and the Dallas case indicates that there is a climate now – that certainly should have police on guard”, he added. “Solve these problems”, Mr. Obama said.
“I know Americans are struggling right now with what we have witnessed in the past week”, Obama said.
The president made the remark after concluding a more than three-hour meeting Wednesday with community activists, politicians and law enforcement officials.
The victims, four of whom served with the Dallas Police Department and a fifth who served with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit police, ranged in age from 32 to 55.
In his eulogy, President Obama said that the Dallas attack appeared “as if the deepest fault lines of our democracy” was exposed, though he rejected the notion that the country was divided. I know we’ll make it because of what I’ve experienced in my own life.
At the memorial service, the 70-year-old was seen holding hands with wife Laura and Michelle Obama, singing along to the hymn but then begins swinging his arms, dancing and smiling as the holy song is sung.
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Still, Obama’s 2014 initiative to encourage best practices in law enforcement nationally, including an emphasis on community policing, needs to be “reenergized”, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday. For example, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has the Texas Executive Mansion bathed in blue light for five nights in the wake of the shooting to show his support for police in Dallas and across the state. Brown has called for calm and unity in the wake of the attack.
