Hillary Clinton on Monday condemned the fatal shootings of police officers in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, calling their slayings an affront to everyone.
Speaking at the NAACP Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, Clinton said the recent shootings of police were “madness” and called for change beginning with both law enforcement officers and activists protesting police brutality.
“Watching the news from Baton Rouge yesterday, my heart broke,” she said. “Not just for those officers and their grieving families, but for all of us. We have difficult, painful, work ahead of us to repair the bonds. Between our police and our communities. We need to do one another to do this work and we need leaders like the NAACP. We need police officers to help us make progress. These murders threaten all of that.”
In addition to pushing a message of unity and dialogue, Clinton stressed that anyone who shoots and kills a police officer must be brought to justice.
“If you take aim at that, and at them, you take aim at all of us,” she said. “Anyone who kills a police officer, and anyone who helps, must be held accountable. And as president, I will bring the full weight of the law to bear and making sure those who kill police officers are brought to justice. There can be no justification. No looking the other way.”
Clinton brought these points together with her call for gun reform, urging Republicans to recognize that a ban on assault weapons would help end violence against police officers.
Clinton also spoke on the recent high-profile killings of two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, by the police. She called for the recognition of an implicit bias among law enforcement and the building of trust between police and people of color.
“So now is the time for all good people who agree that the senseless killings must end to stand up, speak out loudly and clearly,” she said. “I know that the NAACP and so many of you individually will do all you can to help our nation heal and start the work together to meet these challenges. We must reform our criminal justice systems because everyone is safer when there’s respect for the law and when everyone is respected by the law. “
Clinton pledged to keep the conversation around police violence going after others had moved on to the next news cycle.
“When the 24 hour news cycle moves on, I won’t,” Clinton promised.
Good luck, Hillary. President Obama and AG Lynch aren’t going to make this easy for you. After an initial comment of a conciliatory tone yesterday, the President then ended up doubling down on his usual anti- police rhetoric later on. AG Lynch, the top law enforcement officer in the country has had very little to say about the murders of cops in BR, the shooting of the Milwaukee cop in his car yesterday or the burning of a police car last night. It is expected that she will come out and tell BLM protesters “don’t be discouraged”, like she did after cops were slaughtered in Dallas.
You’re a funny guy, you go on before or after Dennis Miller in Cleveland?
I am in no way in favor of violence against the police, but as someone who was once handcuffed with two sets of handcuffs with my arms spread eagled and a cop slapping a piece of PVC in his hand telling me how he knows how to beat me without leaving any marks–inside the DeRidder, Louisiana police station–I have to say that allowing the police to behave like this “takes aim at all of us” and if “sit down, shut up and let the police beat and kill you” is the only response the government has then I am not going to be surprised if violence against police continues.
I am lucky to have been a white man in that situation; had I been black I would probably be dead.
How ridiculous!!!
Excellent.