Obama: America is not as divided as some suggest

There is sorrow, there is anger, there is confusion… but there is unity.

He covered his tracks a bit later in the presser by saying, “The demented individual who carried out those attacks in Dallas, he’s not more representative of all African-Americans than the shooter in Charleston was representative of white Americans”.

“We’re moving forward with the most significant reinforcement of our collective defense any time since the Cold War”, U.S. President Barack Obama said at a news conference at the end of a crucial North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in Warsaw.

But the divisive issue of gun control could not be separated from the tension between police and local citizens, he said.

But he acknowledged a ramped-up anxiety that’s descended on Americans as they watch seemingly unfettered violence on urban streets. “Americans of all races and all backgrounds are rightly outraged about the inexcusable attacks on police”.

“Imagine if you are a police officer and you’re trying to sort out who is shooting at you, and there are a lot of people who have guns on them”, he said.

“When we start suggesting that somehow there’s this enormous polarisation and we’re back to the situation in the 60s and – that’s just not true”, said the president. A visibly frustrated Obama urged Americans to push for local law enforcement reforms and said all Americans, regardless of race, should care about the treatment of blacks and Hispanics by police.

President Barack Obama pauses while speaking about the events in Dallas at the beginning of his news conference at PGE National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, July 9, 2016. Dallas Police Chief David Brown has said former Army Reservist Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, was seeking retribution against white police officers for police-involved shootings throughout the country.

“When people are armed with powerful weapons, unfortunately it makes attacks like these more deadly and more tragic”, he said. “They don’t speak for us”. “It doesn’t”, Obama said.

“When it comes to the issue of gun safety, there is polarization”.

Obama is in Warsaw attending the NATO Summit.

On Thursday, Obama addressed recent shootings by police officers which have sparked controversy and protests nationwide. He will visit Dallas in the next few day, hoping to bridge divisions between the police and minority communities, said a White House spokesman.

“As painful as this week has been, I firmly believe that America is not as divided as some have suggested”. “To encourage people to listen to each other”.

“The legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination didn’t suddenly vanish with the passage of the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act or the election of Barack Obama”, he said.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders agreed today to deploy sophisticated surveillance aircraft to support the US-led fight against the so-called Islamic State group in Syria, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. “And somebody else maybe sits under the shade of the tree that we planted”.

Obama declined to talk about the Dallas shooter’s motives.

Immigration and its challenges played a key role in the run-up to the British referendum.