DALLAS, (Reuters) – They stood in a line, clasping hands as a choir sang, Democrat and Republican, black and white, politician and cop. Led by President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush, they honored the five Dallas policemen slain last week and urged Americans to rise above racial divides and reject despair.
The scene unfolded at a memorial service after a week when Americans were jarred by video images of angry crowds protesting police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota and heard the screams of Thursday’s sniper attack on police in Dallas by a black former U.S. soldier who had said he wanted to “kill white people.”
“We turn on the TV or surf the internet, and we can watch positions harden and lines drawn and people retreat to their respective corners,” the first black U.S. president said.
“I understand how Americans are feeling. But Dallas, I’m here to say we must reject such despair. I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem.”
