CLEVELAND ― A day after Cleveland’s police union head Steve Loomis said that President Barack Obama has “blood on his hands” after shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Police Chief Calvin Williams said he’s confident Obama supports the police.
Asked whether he thought Obama had done enough to reassure police officers he had their backs, Williams quickly said “of course.”
“He’s our commander in chief. I haven’t listened to all the statements he’s put out but I know he supports law enforcement,” Williams told reporters on Monday.
Loomis, the head of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, said on Sunday that Obama had stoked hatred of police by creating a “false narrative” that police were targeting black people.
Donald Trump, the man who Williams’ officers are charged with protecting during the Republican National Convention, has also suggested that Obama somehow wanted police to be killed.
“I watched the president, and sometimes the words are okay. But you just look at the body language and there’s something going on. Look, there’s something going on,” he said on “Fox and Friends” Monday.
Obama strongly condemned the attacks on police in both Dallas and Baton Rouge, calling them “despicable” and saying there was “no justification.” At the same time, he has spoken out in reaction to the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and said that confronting racism did not mean one was anti-police.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed comments saying President Obama has blood on his hands to Calvin Williams. Steve Loomis made the comments.
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