MADRID — President Obama on Sunday urged those protesting
the recent shootings of black men by police officers to avoid
inflammatory words and actions, which he said would worsen tensions and
set back their cause.
“Whenever those of us who are concerned about failures of the criminal justice system attack police, you are doing a disservice to the cause,” said Mr. Obama, speaking in Spain after a meeting with the country’s interim prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.
The president said that one of the United States’ virtues is its openness to protests and efforts to speak truth to power.
He added that the Black Lives Matter movement and the broader debate over racial biases in the criminal justice system had grown out of a tradition dating to the abolitionist movement and the campaign for women’s rights.
“In a movement like Black Lives Matter, there are always going to be folks who say things that are stupid or imprudent or over-generalized or harsh,” Mr. Obama said, according to a pool report on his comments. “And I don’t think that you can hold well-meaning activists who are doing the right thing, peacefully protesting, responsible for everything that is uttered at a protest site.”
He added: “I would just say that, everybody who’s concerned about the issue of police shootings or racial bias in the criminal justice system, that maintaining a truthful and serious and respectful tone is going to help mobilize American society to bring about real change. And that is our ultimate objective.”
Mr. Obama urged police organizations to treat protesters respectfully and to treat their grievances seriously.
“I’d like both sides to listen to each other,” he said.
Mr. Obama’s secretary of homeland security, Jeh Johnson, echoed that message during a series of joint television interviews with New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton in New York on Sunday morning.
Addressing the anxieties of Americans shaken by the shootings last week, Mr. Johnson said that it was “a time for healing,” but also time to redouble efforts to build bridges between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
“It’s a time to come together, to heal, to mourn, but to remember that the shooter is not reflective of the larger movement to bring about change that was out in Dallas to peaceably demonstrate,” Mr. Johnson said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And those who engage in excessive force in the law enforcement community are not reflective of the larger law enforcement community.”
“Whenever those of us who are concerned about failures of the criminal justice system attack police, you are doing a disservice to the cause,” said Mr. Obama, speaking in Spain after a meeting with the country’s interim prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.
The president said that one of the United States’ virtues is its openness to protests and efforts to speak truth to power.
He added that the Black Lives Matter movement and the broader debate over racial biases in the criminal justice system had grown out of a tradition dating to the abolitionist movement and the campaign for women’s rights.
“In a movement like Black Lives Matter, there are always going to be folks who say things that are stupid or imprudent or over-generalized or harsh,” Mr. Obama said, according to a pool report on his comments. “And I don’t think that you can hold well-meaning activists who are doing the right thing, peacefully protesting, responsible for everything that is uttered at a protest site.”
He added: “I would just say that, everybody who’s concerned about the issue of police shootings or racial bias in the criminal justice system, that maintaining a truthful and serious and respectful tone is going to help mobilize American society to bring about real change. And that is our ultimate objective.”
Mr. Obama urged police organizations to treat protesters respectfully and to treat their grievances seriously.
“I’d like both sides to listen to each other,” he said.
Mr. Obama’s secretary of homeland security, Jeh Johnson, echoed that message during a series of joint television interviews with New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton in New York on Sunday morning.
Addressing the anxieties of Americans shaken by the shootings last week, Mr. Johnson said that it was “a time for healing,” but also time to redouble efforts to build bridges between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
“It’s a time to come together, to heal, to mourn, but to remember that the shooter is not reflective of the larger movement to bring about change that was out in Dallas to peaceably demonstrate,” Mr. Johnson said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And those who engage in excessive force in the law enforcement community are not reflective of the larger law enforcement community.”
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