Clinton, Trump show restraint after shootings

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

In this heated and deeply divisive campaign year, America’s presidential candidates responded Friday with striking reflection and restraint to the week’s killings of five police officers and two black men.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump quickly scrapped most political events, hours after the officers were killed in Dallas during a protest over the fatal police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota. Clinton did go forward with a late afternoon appearance at the African Methodist Episcopal Convention in Philadelphia, where she focused on violence from all quarters and declared there is “something wrong with our country.”

Addressing the shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in suburban St. Paul, Clinton said that as president she would urge white Americans to gain a better understanding of the anxiety many blacks feel in dealing with law enforcement.

She also spoke sympathetically of the police officers who were killed and their families “who lived every day with the fear that something like this would happen and will always be proud of their service and sacrifice.” Her audience applauded when she noted that the police died protecting a march protesting police violence.

However, she also said Americans must “acknowledge that implicit bias still exists across society and even in the best police departments.” As president, she said, she plans to commit $1 billion “to find and fund’ training programs and research to deal with that.

Trump canceled a speech in Miami on Hispanic issues. He instead posted a Facebook video urging people to “stand in solidarity with law enforcement, which we must remember is the force between civilization and total chaos.”

He also called Sterling’s and Castile’s deaths a reminder of “how much more work we have to do to make every American feel that their safety is protected.”

“Now is the time for prayers, love, unity and leadership,” Trump said, while vowing to “make America safe again.”