Hillary Clinton on Friday called for the nation to come together in the aftermath of an ambush that killed five police officers in Dallas, Texas, Thursday night, warning that this “absolutely horrific event” — coupled with a series of recent shootings involving police officers — “should worry every single American.”
“This is the kind of call to action, and as president, I would implement the very comprehensive set of proposals that I’ve been making for more than a year,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “We must do more to have national guidelines about the use of force by police, especially deadly force.”
Clinton also called on communities across the country to “respect” police officers.
“We need to do more to respect and protect our police,” Clinton said. “Look at what happened in Dallas. Those police officers were protecting a peaceful protest, a protest of authority. That is a hallmark of America.”
“Let’s start understanding and putting ourselves in each other’s shoes,” she said. “We’ve got to do a lot more to bring the police together with the communities that they protect.”
She added, “I will call for white people like myself to put ourselves in the shoes of those African-American families who fear every time their children go somewhere, who have to have the talk about how to really protect themselves when they’re the ones who should be expecting protection from encounters with the police. I’m going to be talking with white people … We’re the ones that have to start listening.”