Obama: Cops Deserve Our Respect

Americans can and should do more to ease the tensions between police and the communities they serve, President Barack Obama said Friday at a ceremony for officers who died on the job. Obama’s tribute to fallen officers comes as he tries to tread a delicate line between supporting law officers and criticizing police excesses. The Department of Justice issued a report earlier this year excoriating racial bias within local police departments in Missouri and has said it will investigate the Baltimore Police after the death of Freddie Gray in custody. Obama has made reform of law enforcement and incarceration practices a central goal for his last two years as president. He established a task force that has sought ways to improve trust even as anger grows with every killing of unarmed blacks by police in places like Ferguson, Missouri, Cleveland, North Charleston, South Carolina and Baltimore.