President Obama on Friday called the Dallas sniper attacks that killed five police officers at a protest against officer-involved shootings Thursday night "vicious, calculated, and despicable." Speaking from Warsaw, Poland, where he is involved with the NATO summit, the president said that, while we don't know all the facts about the shootings, "there is no possible justification for these kinds of attacks, or any violence against law enforcement." He said the FBI has been in touch with Dallas police and will offer any assistance necessary, and asked Americans to say a prayer for the victims, "keep them in their thoughts and as a nation, let's remember to express our profound gratitude to our men and women in blue, not just today, but every day."
On Thursday, following recent deadly shootings of black men by police, Obama said such incidents were "symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system."
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