President Obama: Killing of Baton Rouge Cops Was ‘Work of Cowards’
President Obama: Killing of Baton Rouge Cops Was ‘Work of Cowards’
President Barack Obama on Sunday condemned “in the strongest sense of the word” the attack in Baton Rouge that left three police officers dead and another three wounded, calling the assault the “work of cowards.”
The president said he has offered his “full support” to federal and local authorities as they investigate what prompted the shooting about a half mile from Baton Rouge police headquarters. At least one suspect was killed and officials believe two others may still be at large, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
The fatal shootings in Baton Rouge follow a suspected sniper’s ambush on Dallas police officers earlier this month. Five police officers were killed during a protest against recent police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana.
“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,” Obama said in a statement. “These are attacks on public servants, on the rule of law, and on civilized society, and they have to stop.”
“There is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None,” he added. “These attacks are the work of cowards who speak for no one. They right no wrongs. They advance no causes.”
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings joined Obama and several notable political figures in mourning the deaths of the Baton Rouge officers. “Reports out of Baton Rouge this morning of three officers killed and others wounded are deeply disturbing. This must stop,” Rawlings said in a statement. “Violence against our police officers under any circumstances is not acceptable and poses a grave threat to all of us. Those peacefully protesting police across the country must swiftly condemn this type of violence against law enforcement.”
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also weighed in, demanding “law and order.” “We grieve for the officers killed in Baton Rouge today,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “How many law enforcement and people have to die because of a lack of leadership in our country?”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi shared the same sentiment, calling for peace and justice across the country. “We are united in our grief for the victims, our prayers for the survivors, and our steadfast belief that we must work together to disarm hate in all of its forms,” she said in a statement.
“We must continue to confront violence with peace, despair with understanding, and hatred with love,” Pelosi added. “Together, we must act to end the divisions that lead to violence in all of our communities.”
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