“For the moment you put on that uniform, you have answered a call that at any moment, even in the briefest interaction, may put your life in harm’s way”.
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“When African-Americans from all walks of life, from different communities across the country voice a growing despair at what they perceive to be unequal treatment. we can not simply turn away and dismiss those in peaceful protest as trouble makers or paranoid”, he said. “I know it because of what we’ve seen here in Dallas, how all of you, out of great suffering has shown us the meaning of perseverance and character and hope”.
“I know that Americans are struggling right now with what we’ve witnessed over the last week”. He wished Obama had not mentioned Philando Castile or Alton Sterling on Tuesday, and instead kept the focus on police. “But Dallas, I’m here to say we must reject such despair”, he said, returning to the message he offered following the tragedy.
“They are deserving of our respect and not our scorn”, he said.
If Americans don’t confront such shortcomings, Obama warned, “not just in the comfort of our own circles, but with those who look different than us or bring a different perspective, then we will never break this risky cycle”. “And despite the fact that police conduct was the subject of the protest, despite the fact that there must have been signs or slogans or chants with which they profoundly disagreed, these men and this department did their jobs like the professionals that they were”.
He said policing is made harder because the nation fails to fund mental health and drug abuse efforts. “Argument turns too easily into animosity”, Bush said.
“At our best, we practice empathy”, he said.
Then, former President George W. Bush, who lives in Dallas, took the podium.
“Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions”, Bush said. “And this has strained our bonds of understanding and common objective”. We do not want the unity of grief, nor do we want the unity of fear.
Five seats at the front at the packed Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center held only folded flags in honor of the victims.
“The soul of our city was pierced”, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said, as he welcomed Obama to a memorial service. Obama told senior law enforcement officials on Monday that he sees the Dallas shooting as a hate crime, or one motivated by bias, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, who was in the closed-door meeting at the White House.
Bush challenged the idea that the forces pulling Americans apart are stronger than the forces pulling them together. Authorities have said Johnson was heavily armed when he was killed and that they found other weapons and tactical materials from a search of his home in nearby Mesquite.
But he also shot and injured one African-American officer and an African-American Dallas resident. Huge cheers for him!
Obama’s choice of traveling companions underscored the theme. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California joined Obama on Air Force One for the flight to Dallas.
The president praised police for protecting and serving the people.
Obama’s visit came on a quieter day after a stretch of demonstrations from NY to Dallas to Phoenix to San Francisco.
Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old army veteran who served a tour in Afghanistan, was killed by a police remote-controlled bomb on Friday after telling a police negotiator that he was upset at white people and wanted to kill them – especially white police officers.
“I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem”, Obama told the crowd of law enforcement and family members grieving the five officers killed Thursday during a protest of police killings of black men elsewhere.
Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Michael Smith, and Lorne Ahrens were killed after an otherwise peaceful protest in downtown Dallas.
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The tribute ended with a resounding Dallas police choir rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the Union anthem of victory in the Civil War.
