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Obama Says Attacks On Police Have To Stop Following Baton Rouge

Published on: July 17, 2016 at 10:58 PM
By Nick Younker

President Obama released a statement following the news of attacks on police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that said the attacks on law enforcement have to stop. The Baton Rouge attacks are the latest attack on police in the southwest in less than two weeks that have left officers dead as a result.

In what appears to be a major divide between law enforcement around the nation and African Americans, a lone gunman identified as Gavin Long went on a mass murder tirade against law enforcement officials in Baton Rouge today that left three officers dead, as well as the shooter. There were also three police officers wounded in the attack.

Obama has had to hold several press conferences during his tenure following the mass murder of a group of individuals, whether it be for the children of Sandy Hook, the people of San Bernardino, or the police in Dallas. In his current statement, obtained by the New York Times , that follows the Baton Rouge shooting, Obama reiterated that the attacks on police have to stop.

“I condemn, in the strongest sense of the word, the attack on law enforcement in Baton Rouge,” President Obama said in a statement released by the White House. “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. These are attacks on public servants, on the rule of law, and on civilized society, and they have to stop.”

The attacks on police in Baton Rouge that have left three dead and three wounded were committed by Gavin Long, who is an Iraq War veteran who served a tour of duty from June, 2008, to January, 2009. The Marine veteran has also had several awards for his performance in duty, which includes Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal.

Gavin Long had been vocal about his outrage against police over the shootings of black people across the country. But his outrage did not seem to target any one police officer in particular, but rather the whole institution as one. There is no evidence to suggest that he specifically targeted the police officers that were killed or wounded in the gun battle in Baton Rouge, but it is still early in the investigation process.

“I’ve offered my full support, and the full support of the federal government, to [Louisiana] Governor Edwards, [Baton Rouge] Mayor Holden, the Sheriff’s Office, and the Baton Rouge Police Department. And make no mistake – justice will be done,” Obama said in his statement. Obama also wanted to make clear that the motives of Gavin Long in this attack have not been identified yet.

“We may not yet know the motives for this attack, but I want to be clear: there is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None. These attacks are the work of cowards who speak for no one,” Obama’s statement read. “They right no wrongs. They advance no causes. 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.”

Activists across the country, which includes the Black Lives Matter movement, have expressed that they are not discouraged after the attacks on police from maintaining their message against police violence on African-Americans. But they have also expressed regret and sorrow for the killings of police officers in Dallas and today in Baton Rouge.

“I think it will make the movement work much harder,” Adjoa Danso told New York Times . “We’re going to see a greater militarization of police at protests, like we already saw in Baton Rouge.”

[Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images]

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