Highlights from the memorial for 5 Dallas police officers
Highlights from the memorial for 5 Dallas police officers
DALLAS (AP) — President Barack Obama joined with former President George W. Bush and others in memorializing five officers killed in the line of duty Thursday.
—Obama on despair: We turn on the TV or surf the internet, and we can watch positions harden and lines drawn and people retreat to their respective corners, and politicians calculate how to grab attention or avoid the fallout.
—Obama on police: We know that the overwhelming majority of police officers do an incredibly hard and dangerous job fairly and professional.
When anyone, no matter how good their intentions may be, paints all police as biased, or bigoted, we undermine those officers that we depend on for our safety.
—Obama on bias: Although most of us do our best to guard against it and teach our children better, none of us is entirely innocent.
No institution is entirely immune, and that includes our police departments.
A new heart, not a heart of stone, but a heart open to the fears and hopes and challenges of our fellow citizens.