Hillary Clinton says Trump threatens democracy, is dangerous and promotes anti-Semitism
David Brown, the Dallas police chief, said that when it comes to overcoming systemic racism and so many other problems in society, we ask too much of the police and too little of everyone else. I think he’s absolutely right. This is our problem, and we all need to work together to solve it.
We also need to listen to the families crying out for relief from gun violence. President Obama’s trip to Dallas yesterday was the 11th time he has spoken to a city in mourning after a mass shooting. The wrong people keep getting their hands on guns. And not just any guns – military weapons, like the kind that the Dallas killer had, which allowed him to outgun the police. And the vast majority of gun owners agree: we have to come together around common sense steps to prevent gun violence. If we’re looking for common ground – this is common ground. And I hope that we will, from Washington, to Springfield to everywhere across America, come to agreement about that.
Now I understand that just saying these things together may upset some people. I’m talking about police reform just a few days after a horrific attack on police officers. I’m talking about courageous, honorable police officers just a few days after officer-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota. I’m bringing up guns in a country where just talking about comprehensive background checks and getting assault weapons off our streets gets you demonized.
But all these things can be true at the same time.
We do need criminal justice reform to save lives and to make sure all Americans are treated as equals in rights and dignity. We do need to support our police departments that are trying to get it right, and honor the men and women who protect us every day. We do need to do more to stop gun violence. We may disagree about how to do these things, but surely we can all agree with those basic premises. And I hope and pray the past week has showed us how true they are.
Now, these are the issues on many of our minds right now. And if we stop there, that would leave us with plenty of work to do.
So I wish I could say that was everything that we must address.
But these events are taking place against a much broader backdrop of fear and anxiety. So I think we have to face all of it.