Protests across US Cities as Dallas Shooting Rocks Race Relations
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Thousands of peaceful protesters took to the streets in US cities on Friday after a black extremist shot dead five cops during a peaceful march against police brutality in Texas.
US President Barack Obama said early on Saturday he will cut short a foreign trip and visit Dallas next week as a shooting rampage by the black army veteran bent on killing white police triggered urgent calls to mend troubled race relations in the United States.
Police found bomb-making materials and a weapons cache at the home of 25-year-old Micah Johnson, a Dallas area resident who gunned down the officers before dying in a standoff with police.
Five officers were killed in the late Thursday shooting, including a Dallas transit cop, while seven other officers and two civilians were wounded.
While the White House ruled out any link between the gunman and known "terrorist organizations," Johnson's Facebook page ties him to several radical black movements.
Described to police as a "loner" with no prior criminal record, Johnson told negotiators before he died that he wanted to kill white cops in retaliation for the recent fatal police shootings of two black men.
The US Army said that Johnson served as a reservist for six years, including a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
The rampage revives an emotional debate over lethal use of force by police, and problems of police bias towards racial minorities, especially African-Americans.
Leaders of the Black Lives Matter protest movement condemned the Dallas violence, but vowed to uphold planned weekend marches.
Vast crowds marched Friday in US cities including Atlanta, Georgia; Houston, Texas; and San Francisco, while scores protested outside the White House.
Addressing thousands of people at a prayer service in honor of the fallen officers, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings urged Americans to "step up" to heal the country's racial wounds.
"We will not shy away from the very real fact that we as a city, as a state, as a nation are struggling with racial issues," he told the crowd, AFP reported.
The peaceful Dallas protest was one of several nationwide over the deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota that prompted Obama to make an emotional appeal for urgent police reform.
