President Obama on Monday described the Dallas shooting as a “hate crime” against police, according to a top law enforcement representative in the meeting with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
“One really striking thing the president said in his opening remarks was that the shooting in Dallas in many ways was strikingly parallel to the Dylann Roof shooting in Charleston in the sense that it was a hate crime,” said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, in an interview with POLITICO.
During the nearly two-hour session, Obama told Pasco and seven other police association officials that if Micah Johnson were still alive, he would have been prosecuted for a hate crime, “which is quite a precedent from our standpoint,” Pasco said.
On behalf of Law Officer, we appreciate the remarks from the President and feel that they are appropriate. We encourage him to make those remarks in a public setting, for the world to hear. It is a needed sentiment in light of the violence occurring to law enforcement in our country.