Clinton: Police shootings need ‘to become intolerable’
Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called the recent police shootings in Oklahoma and North Carolina “intolerable,” arguing that Americans and law enforcement need to work together to have safer communities.
{mosads}At a rally in Orlando, Fla., the Democratic presidential nominee expressed her condolences to the families of the African-American men who were killed during encounters with police officers.
“There is still much we don’t know about what happened … but [what] we do know is we have two more names of African-Americans killed by police officers in these encounters,” Clinton said.
“It’s unbearable, and it needs to become intolerable,” she added.
She also took an opportunity to praise law enforcement for its work handling the weekend bombs in New York and New Jersey and a stabbing in Minnesota, saying they handled it “exactly right and saved a lot of lives.”
“We are safer when communities respect the police, and police who respect communities,” Clinton said.
But New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a surrogate for GOP nominee Donald Trump, slammed Clinton, calling her comments a “disgrace.”
“It’s typical of Hillary Clinton. She knows nothing, but the mouth never stops. And, the fact is that she has no idea what happened in North Carolina.”
Christie said Wednesday that Clinton has no experience in law enforcement and no background on how to handle these types of issues.
“I’m just appalled, and as someone who spent seven years in law enforcement, she’s exactly the kind of politician that law enforcement loathes, loathes her,” Christie said.
“Because, she jumps to conclusion for political gain and doesn’t care what careers or lives she ruins in the process.”
Trump also addressed the shootings on Wednesday, while delivering remarks in Cleveland at a historically black church. He said he is “very troubled” by the killing of an unarmed black man by police in Oklahoma and seemed to question how the police officer handled the incident.
“I watched the shooting in part in Tulsa, and that man was hands up,” Trump said. “That man went to the car, hands up, put his hands on the car.
“To me, it looked like he did everything you’re supposed to do. The young officer — I don’t know what she was thinking. But I’m very, very troubled by that.”
Terence Crutcher, who was unarmed, was fatally shot by a police officer in Tulsa on Sept. 16. A video of the incident shows him with his hands in the air before he was shot.
And in Charlotte, N.C., a black police officer fatally shot a black man police say was armed at an apartment complex Tuesday, which prompted angry street protests late into the night. Twelve police officers were injured following demonstrations.
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