After ‘deeply troubling’ Dallas killings, Clinton calls for more ‘respect’

PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton called for more "understanding" between communities and police in a the wake of a string of tragedies — most recently, the shooting Thursday night of 12 police officers in Dallas.

"This is deeply troubling, and it should worry every single American," Clinton said on CNN on Friday afternoon. "We've got to do much more to listen to one another, respect each other. We've got to do everything possible to support our police and support Americans who have deadly encounters with police."

"We have to make up our minds that we're going to bring this country together," she added.

The shooting left five police officers dead and and seven others wounded after they were fired upon by at least one gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle.

According to Dallas police, before the shooter was killed in a standoff with police, he claimed that "he was upset about the recent police shootings" and "said he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers."

The mass deaths left an already-shaken country rocked by yet another tragedy. Earlier in the week, two black men — one in Louisiana and another in Minnesota — were killed in encounters with police.

The videos documenting death and its aftermath in those two incidents prompted outcry and protests across the country from people who said the cases were proof that racial bias led to both men dying in what should have been routine encounters with law enforcement officers.

Clinton said she would call for new national standards for the use of force by police. And she added that her effort to unify a country increasingly divided along racial lines would begin with white people.

"I will call for white people like myself to put ourselves in the shoes of those African American families who fear every time their children go somewhere — who have to have 'the talk,'" Clinton said, referencing the conversations about safety in police encounters that black families sometimes have with their children. "I'm going to be talking to white people."

She added: "I think we're the ones who have to start listening to the legitimate cries that are coming from our fellow African American citizens."

Clinton canceled a planned campaign stop and fundraising event with Vice President Biden in Scranton, Pa., earlier in the day in the aftermath of the Dallas shooting.

Prior to the tragic events, she had already planned to address the deaths of Alton Sterling, who was fatally shot in Baton Rouge, and Philando Castile, who was fatally shot in Minnesota, this week. Both shootings were fully or partially recorded by witnesses.