President Barack Obama on Tuesday said he understood why Americans felt there was a widening racial gulf in the country, but rejected the suggestion that tensions would only get worse. He also eulogized each of the dead Dallas police officers individually and pointed out that they had perished while protecting a rally called to protest police actions and praised them for upholding the constitutional rights. They joined hands and called for unity in the face of polarization and adversity. Obama spent hours in Orlando, Florida, consoling the loved ones of 49 people who were killed in a shooting rampage at a nightclub. “And I know that because I know America”.
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President Barack Obama paid tribute to the five police officers killed in the line of duty in Dallas. Spouses, children and parents of those killed sat front and center in the first rows.
Five seats remained empty to honor each of the fallen officers at the interfaith memorial service in Dallas.
“The soul of our city was pierced”, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said, as he welcomed Obama to a memorial service.
Texan and former President George W. Bush also spoke, stressing the need for national unity. “This is the bridge across our nation’s deepest divisions”.
He noted that the Dallas attack came during a protest against racial discrimination in policing that followed the fatal police shootings of black men in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and outside St. Paul, Minnesota.
Afterward, one officer sitting near the stage tried to explain the silence. He said guns are easier for youths to obtain than computers.
“If we are to sustain unity, if we are to get through these hard times, if we are to honor these five outstanding officers who we have lost, then we need to act on the truths that we know”, he said.
For 40 minutes, Obama threaded the raw emotions and festering resentments of both sides, trying to pull them closer together.
Despite the killings last week, Mr Obama moved to reassure the American people that the country is not as divided as it seems.
He praised police: “We know that the overwhelming majority of police officers do an incredibly hard and risky job fairly and professionally”.
“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.
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”.
“None of us is entirely innocent, no institution is entirely immune. And this includes our police departments”.
Obama pleaded for each community to open its hearts. “If we can not even talk about these things”, he said, “if we can not talk honestly and openly 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 unsafe cycle”. Obama has labeled the Dallas attack a hate crime.
A crowd in Atlanta staged a sit-in in front of the governor’s mansion late Monday.
The Dallas officers were fatally gunned down Thursday by a sniper, an armed-to-the-teeth Army veteran who targeted the officers, perhaps as retribution for police violence largely unrelated to north Texas.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles was one of the few places where people again took to the streets.
The nation’s continuing unease and jittery nerves was evident even at the Dallas memorial service.
The event will be in the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. Inside, some officers acknowledged keeping an eye out for possible escape routes.
He said that while police officers started their days like everyone else, their work was not typical. “It reminds us that it could be any one of us”.
Standing nearby was Quentin Draper, a pastor at the Spirit of Truth Church. They’ve been true for a long time.
Jill Biden arrived in Dallas just after noon.
“I said we wanted to see him give one more-unifying speech, which addressed, to the satisfaction of all, the grievances and the grief of all parties”, he said.
“Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions”, said the Dallas resident. Republican Sen. John Cornyn, attended and spoke at the service but did not travel with the president.
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Wan and Berman reported from Washington.
