Obama condemns 'cowardly and reprehensible assault' on police in Baton Rouge

President Obama speaks at a memorial for police in Dallas
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)

President Obama released a statement Sunday afternoon condemning "in the strongest sense of the word" the morning's deadly attack on police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"For the second time in two weeks, police officers who put their lives on the line for ours every day were doing their job when they were killed in a cowardly and reprehensible assault," he said. "These are attacks on public servants, on the rule of law, and on civilized society, and they have to stop."

"We may not yet know the motives for this attack," Obama added, "but I want to be clear: There is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None. These attacks are the work of cowards who speak for no one. They right no wrongs. They advance no causes."

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Obama noted that the White House is assisting law enforcement in Louisiana however possible and pledged that justice wil be done.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.