US President Obama honours 5 slain #Dallas police officers

Carlo Allegri/Reuters

At a memorial for five slain police officers, President Barack Obama declared Tuesday that a week of deeply troubling violence has appeared to expose “the deepest fault lines of our democracy.” But he insisted the nation is not as divided as it seems and called on Americans to search for common ground in support of racial equity and justice.

Obama acknowledged Americans are unsettled by another mass shooting on their streets and are seeking answers to the violence that has sparked protests in cities and highlighted the nation’s persistent racial divide.

The five Dallas officers were killed last Thursday while standing guard as hundreds of people protested the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota earlier in the week.

“It’s hard not to think sometimes that the centre might not hold, that things might get worse,” Obama said. “We must reject such despair.”

He joined politicians, police officers and families of the fallen in the wake of the shocking slaying by a black man who said he wanted revenge for the killings of blacks by police.

READ MORE