President Obama (White House photo)
President Obama on Tuesday used the interfaith memorial service for five police officers from the Dallas department shot and killed by a sniper to remind America that he wants more gun control, telling the audience that it’s easier for a teen to get a weapon than a book.
“We’ve chosen to underinvest in decent schools,” he said. “We allow poverty to fester, so that entire neighborhoods offer no possibility of gainful employment. We’ve refused to fund mental health programs. We flood communities with so many guns it’s easier for a teen to get his hands on a Glock than get a computer or a book.”
Obama, who has pressed more for gun control across the U.S. than any other president in recent history, continued, “Then we tell police you’re the social worker, you’re the parent, you’re the teacher, you’re the drug counselor.”
The service at Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas was in honor of Dallas Police Sgt. Michael Smith, 55; Dallas Police Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens; Dallas Police Officer Michael Krol; Dallas Police Officer Patrick Zamarripa; and Dallas Area Rapid Transit Officer Brent Thompson.
They were killed last week as they were protecting a protest against police who killed black suspects in Minnesota and Louisiana when a sniper started picking off officers.
“Even though many dislike the phrase Black Lives Matter, surely we should be able to hear the pain of Alton Sterling’s family … Philando Castile, his life mattered to a whole lot of people,” Obama said, bringing up two blacks killed in those confrontations last week.
The protest last Thursday was on their behalf and the Dallas officers were protecting the protesters when Micah Johnson, who during the firefight with police expressed the desire to kill white officers, started shooting.
Five officers died and seven more were injured. Johnson himself was killed when police fashioned a bomb and had a robot deliver it to a point in the parking garage where Johnson was cornered to kill him.
Thousands of dignitaries, officers and others gathered for the memorial. It was not open to the public.
Obama said communities are torn apart and hearts broken by violence, and he knows there are those who wonder if the division ever can be closed.
“The African-American community feels unfairly targeted … and police feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs.”
He continued, “We also know that centuries of racial discrimination, of slavery, and subjugation and Jim Crow, they didn’t simply vanish with the end of lawful segregation. They didn’t just stop when Dr. King made a speech, or when the voting rights and civil rights act were signed.”
He said, “We know, Americans know that bias remains. We know it. Whether you are black or white or Asian, or native American or Middle Eastern descent. We have all seen this bigotry at some point. We have heard it in our own homes. If we’re honest perhaps we’ve heard prejudice in our own heads, and felt it in our own hearts.”
Some Americans, he pointed out, have suffered far more under racism’s burden that others.
But he said American should reject such despair, and he praised the Dallas police officers because “when the bullets started flying,” …. “they did not flinch and they did not react recklessly.”
Former President George W. Bush, a Dallas resident now, praised the officers while mourning “five deaths in the family.”
“Their courage is our protection and shield,” he said, talking about police officers. “We are grief-stricken, heart broken and forever grateful.”
Several ministers offered prayers, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he once was told, “Being a Texan doesn’t describe where you’re from, it describes who your family is.”
Fox reported Obama called family members of Sterling and Castile while en route to the Dallas memorial service.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama offered condolences.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/obama-warns-guns-easier-to-get-than-books/
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