– ‘Demented’ gunman –
President Barack Obama tried Saturday to reassure a shocked country, insisting that the United States can overcome its racial divisions, and rejecting comparisons with the civil unrest of the 1960s.
Obama, scheduled to visit Dallas next week, described the gunman as a “demented individual” who in no way represented the African-American community.
“I firmly believe that America is not as divided as some have suggested,” he said during a NATO summit in Warsaw. “There is sorrow, there is anger, there is confusion… but there is unity.”
US politicians have sought to appear as unifiers after the week of violence.
“White Americans need to do a better job of listening when African Americans talk about the barriers they face,” Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton tweeted.
That message was echoed by prominent members of the Republican Party, which has often jumped to defend law enforcement amid accusations of racial bias.
“It is more dangerous to be black in America,” said Newt Gingrich, a Republican former House speaker tipped as a possible White House running mate for Donald Trump.
“Sometimes it’s difficult for whites to appreciate how real that is. It’s an everyday danger.”
There has been a huge surge of sympathy for Dallas police after what marked the single biggest loss of life for US law enforcement since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Although the White House has ruled out any link between Johnson and known “terrorist organisations,” his Facebook page ties him to radical black movements listed as hate groups.
Police found bomb-making materials and a weapons cache at Johnson’s home and were scouring his journal and social media posts to understand what drove him to mass murder.
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