5 empty seats in memory of slain Tex. cops
PRESIDENT OBAMA, hopeful of closing old wounds reopened by last week’s polarizing racial killings, used a memorial for five slain Dallas cops to call for national healing.
A clearly emotional Obama defended both the nation’s police and its protesters in a personal speech Tuesday in which he called on the country to work as one toward resolving its blackwhite divide.
“When anyone . . . paints all police as biased or bigoted, we undermine those officers we depend on for our safety,” the Presi- dent said at an inter- faith service at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas.
“We also know that centuries of racial discrimination, of slavery, and subjugation and Jim Crow . . . they didn’t necessarily stop when Dr. King made a speech.”
Obama spoke for close to 45 minutes at the service, attended by about 2,500, honoring cops Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Lorne Ahrens and Michael Smith.
But he also invoked the names of Alton Sterling, killed by police in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile, shot to death by a cop in a St. Paul suburb, before the Dallas shooter went on his killing spree.
“The deepest fault lines of our democracy have suddenly been exposed, perhaps even widened,” the President said. “It’s hard not to think sometimes that the center won’t hold and things will get worse. I understand how Americans are feeling.
“But Dallas, I’m here to say we must reject such despair. I’m here to insist we’re not as divided as we seem.”
Blowup photos of the five slain cops sat on the stage alongside Vice President Biden and his wife, Jill. In the audience, five empty seats were filled with the slain quintet’s hats and a folded American flag.
Former President George W. Bush, a Dallas resident who came with his wife, Laura, received a standing ovation after his eulogy for the officers — and his call for American unity.
“Americans have a great advantage — to renew our unity, we only have to remember our values,” Bush said. “At our best, we practice empathy. This is the bridge across our nation’s biggest divisions.”
An interfaith chorus of police officers sang “The StarSpangled Banner” as an honor guard stood with flags raised at the front of the stage in the theater. Dallas Police Chief David Brown read the lyrics from the Stevie Wonder song “As,” including the couplet, “Change your words into truths/And then change that truth into love.”
The Dallas shootings broke out near the end of a peaceful Thursday night march through downtown by demonstrators, most of them black.
Gunman Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old former Army reservist, was killed by a bomb attached to a police robot after expressing his hopes of killing as many white cops as possible.
The President, along with First Lady Michelle Obama and the Bidens, planned to meet privately with the families of the slain officers.
Obama seemed weary at facing that task yet again in the last six months of his administration.
“I’ve been to too many of these things,” he said. “I’ve seen too many families go through this.”
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings opened the jam-packed service with his own call for the city and the country to unite.
“The soul of our city was pierced when our police officers were ambushed in a cowardly attack,” said Rawlings. “We will mourn together, and together is the key word.”