After each fatal shooting of a black man by an officer, President Barack Obama has swiftly spoken out against bad policing, giving voice to the generations of African-Americans who have found themselves at the wrong end of a baton, a snarling dog or a gun.
As much as those words have comforted blacks, they have rankled many of the nation's men and women in blue. Some have described the remarks as an insult, an all-too-quick condemnation before all the facts are in and a failure to acknowledge the thousands of cops who do a good job and routinely risk their lives.
"It would just be nice for him to say, 'Hey, I support what you're doing,'" said Scott Hughes, chief of police in Hamilton Township, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. "The president doesn't defend the police. It's very one-sided."
On Tuesday, Obama traveled to Dallas to pay tribute to the five officers who were slain by a sniper at a peaceful protest. The president offered perhaps his strongest words yet of support for law enforcement, praising the dead as heroes who died while preserving a constitutional right.
"Like police officers across the country, these men and their families shared a commitment to something larger than themselves," Obama said.
He spoke before an audience that included police officers, relatives of the slain — and five empty seats, each representing a fallen officer. A folded flag and a police hat rested on each chair. The president mentioned the slain officers by name and offered a few personal tidbits about each one.
Comments