Confronting another racially explosive attack on police, President Obama on Sunday condemned the “cowardly” shooting deaths of three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and called on political opponents to tone down their “inflammatory rhetoric,” while Donald Trump blamed the tragedy in part on a “lack of leadership” in the U.S.
“There is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None,” Mr. Obama said. “These attacks are the work of cowards who speak for no one. They right no wrongs. They advance no causes.”
Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, blamed the shootings in part on the administration.
“How many law enforcement people have to die because of a lack of leadership in our country?” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. “We demand law and order.”
On the eve of the Republican National Convention, Mr. Obama, who has been accused of failing to show enough support for police, also urged partisans to cool their rhetoric on the issues of race and policing.
“We’re about to enter a couple of weeks of conventions where our political rhetoric tends to be more overheated than usual,” Mr. Obama said in the White House press room. “We don’t need inflammatory rhetoric. We don’t need careless accusations thrown around to score political points or to advance an agenda.”
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He asked political leaders and the media to “focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further.”
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said he was “deeply disturbed” by the shootings.
“We will not tolerate brutal violence against law enforcement — the people who dedicate their lives to protecting Americans,” Mr. Ryan said.
The president, who was criticized for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement last week at a memorial service for five assassinated police officers in Dallas, said “justice will be done” in the latest shootings.
“For the second time in two weeks, police officers who put their lives on the line for ours every day were doing their job when they were killed in a cowardly and reprehensible assault,” Mr. Obama said. “These are attacks on public servants, on the rule of law and on civilized society, and they have to stop.”
The president said he has offered “the full support of the federal government” to state and local officials in Louisiana. He spoke by phone with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden to receive updates on the investigation.
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While cautioning that a motive for the Baton Rouge attack wasn’t yet established, the president clearly expressed concern that violence against police in the context of racial unrest could be on the rise.
“And make no mistake — the officers in Baton Rouge, the officers in Dallas — they were our fellow Americans, part of our community, part of our country, with people who loved and needed them, and who need us now — all of us — to be at our best,” he said.
It was the second time in 10 days that Mr. Obama confronted a major attack on police officers, following the ambush of white officers in Dallas by a black sniper at a Black Lives Matter demonstration. And it came on the heels of a string of Islamist atrocities, from a mass shooting last month in Orlando, Florida, to a horrific terrorist attack last week in Nice, France, that has seen U.S. flags frequently flying at half-staff.
The president spent most of the past week meeting with police officials and civil rights leaders amid rising tensions between minority communities and law enforcement agencies.
Mr. Obama also took part Thursday night in a televised town hall meeting on the crisis, in which he spoke with Cameron Sterling, the 15-year-old son of Alton Sterling, the Baton Rouge black man who was shot and killed by a white police officer 12 days ago during a confrontation outside a convenience store.
That shooting led to numerous protests in Baton Rouge, hundreds of arrests and the formation on Saturday of a New Black Panther Party chapter in the city.
At the televised town hall event, Cameron Sterling wore a tie with the slogan “When will it stop?” He asked Mr. Obama to “keep all of these families and my family’s faith and the people and the rest of the good police officers safe from bad people and bad police officers.”
“I ask for your help to unite all the races of this world,” the boy told the president.
Mr. Obama said he was “proud” of the teen.
“The country’s not as divided as it seems,” Mr. Obama said. “In communities all across the country, there is real concern about making sure that interactions between police and community don’t result in death.”
The president also had predicted “more tension” in minority communities this summer, even as he called for protesters to conduct themselves peacefully.
“Sadly, because this is a huge country that is very diverse and we have a lot of police departments, I think it is fair to say that we will see more tension in police — between police and communities this month, next month, next year, for quite some time,” Mr. Obama said last week after hosting a lengthy meeting with police officials, civil rights leaders and Black Lives Matter activists.
Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G.K. Butterfield said Sunday the group offered “our deepest sympathies to the families of the officers killed and injured in today’s shooting in Baton Rouge.”
Tensions are high in our country, but violence does not lead to justice, and targeting law enforcement does not bring about solutions,” said Mr. Butterfield, North Carolina Democrat. “The CBC continues to call for peace, and we stand by state and federal officials as they investigate to find the individuals responsible for today’s horrific event.”
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, said he was “heartbroken and angered” by the shootings.
“The intentional targeting and murder of our law enforcement officers is not justified and must end now,” Mr. Scalise said. “We cannot allow anger and violence to tear us apart. It pains me that once again I must implore all Americans, especially in my home state of Louisiana, to commit ourselves to words and deeds that heal and bring peace, that combat lawlessness and promote justice.”
With concerns about civil unrest and terrorism running high among Americans this summer, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Sunday showed that nearly three-quarters of voters believe the nation has gone off on the wrong track, the highest level of pessimism in three years.
In the survey, 73 percent of those polled said things have gone off course, with only 18 percent saying the nation is headed in the right direction.
But Mr. Obama’s job-approval rating doesn’t appear to be suffering from that sentiment. For the third straight month, 51 percent of voters say they approve of Mr. Obama’s job performance, the highest marks of his second term.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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