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Obama convened similar meetings, after riots and protests following a 2014 police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., but two videotaped police shootings last week – followed by the shooting deaths of five officers in Dallas – has brought the issue back to the top of the president’s agenda.
But somehow, it seems as if no one ever told George W. Bush that.
Obama held a similar series of meetings two years ago after tensions boiled following a police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., that sparked protests and rioting.
He joined politicians, police officers and families of the fallen in the wake of the shocking slaying by a black man, who said he wanted revenge for the killings of blacks by police.
“What’s been apparent is that it’s not enough just for us to have a task force, a report and then follow up through our departments, we have to push this out to communities so that they feel ownership for some of the good ideas that have been floating around this table”, he said.
“Those wearing the uniform assume that risk for the safety of strangers”, Bush today at the prayer service.
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.
He urged the nation to speak “honestly and openly” about the current state of race relations, saying we know the overwhelming number of police officers is “worthy of our respect, not our scorn”. “Law enforcement has an incredibly hard job”, Obama said at the time. “I think we’ve got to look at, first of all, hiring, retention, training in these situations and we have got to be honest that we need to do better than we’re doing”.
Most officers do their risky jobs professionally, Obama said. On Monday, he stopped by a meeting of police officials and civil rights leaders convened by Vice President Joe Biden on the topic.
Republican Rep. Robert Hurt of Virginia said on July 12 that President Obama was reaping what he had sowed in regard to anti-police sentiment and the shooting of five police officers in Dallas (video below).
“And so I’m reminded of a passage in John’s Gospel [First John]: Let us love not with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. Because the people of Dallas, people across the country, are suffering”. Chris Anderson said he thought Obama was fair, if challenging.
Cunningham said the Dallas Police Department exemplified that commitment to their community when officers used themselves as human shields to protect bystanders from possibly being shot. “And I also appreciated him looking at the other aspect of it too, that you can’t come out with hate”.
Officer Elaine Hassman, his colleague, said she felt appreciated. “Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions”.
Hassman says there was this moment at the end of the service – a moment that really moved her. The 80-strong choir launched into the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
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“They were peacemakers in blue; they have died for that cause”, proclaimed Mayor Mike Rawlings.
