Facebook erects massive Black Lives Matter sign at company headquarters

At the growing memorial outside of Dallas Police Headquarters Friday, amid the signs of support for law enforcement, one man stood silently holding a sign of a different sort.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who was in Warsaw for a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit said that the reaction of the people to the attacks proved that the nation is remarkably unified.

The next day, Thursday, users again turned to Facebook Live to broadcast footage from a protest in Dallas, that captured sounds of gunfire when a sniper shot multiple people, leaving five oficers dead.

That fact that social media sites are flooded with “Black People get Home Alive” guides is a sad testimony of the relationship between the people who swore to serve and protect and one of the groups they swore to serve and protect.

“It’s a not a black and white thing”, but a movement to end abusive police tactics, said Carleshia Smith, a black protester who talked to Debbie.

Here are scenes of protest, prayer and activism from around the country.

In the past week, police officers have killed black men on video; tense protests have swept the nation and officers have been gunned down on American streets. “The overwhelming majority of police departments really do want to engage communities and be responsive”. The police ran toward rather than away from the danger, shielding and redirecting the protesters to safety.

“I’ve called the police in many instances”, said Victoria Preciado who came to the protest from Inglewood with her husband and infant daughter. “I said, ‘Thank you for your service, ‘” Lewis tweeted Friday. I don’t know what I’m looking at.

Add to all that the emergence of racially charged political rhetoric, with a leading presidential candidate in the person of Donald Trump who has not hesitated to play shamelessly on white fears of immigrants and minorities in general.

Johnson wanted to “kill white people, especially white officers”, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said after the attack on Thursday night. Inevitably, police will feel more threatened, and the danger is they may feel more justified in using force in tense situations.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and countless other leaders have said that the city needs to enter a time of healing, unite and start having some hard conversations about race. The only problem with saying that is that for the most part, it seems so obvious and unquestionable.

Alton Sterling was shot Tuesday in Louisiana after being pinned to the pavement by two white officers.

In San Francisco, New York and Minneapolis, hundreds of demonstrators blocked highways.

More protests were scheduled for Saturday.

Gov. Mark Dayton has met with the protestors several times and said he will not order that they be removed.

Reaction against the cold-blooded, entirely unjustifiable targeting of law enforcement officers should not drown out outrage against the seemingly endless string of killings of black people at the hands of police. Freeway ramps were closed and pepper spray and tear gas were used. “More violence will not make this country stronger; it will only push us apart and make us weaker”. But about 100 of them were outside the Police Memorial Building about 6 p.m. Sunday, waiting for the three people who were arrested to be released from the neighboring jail.