Dallas Police Chief David Brown, who has become the face of the nation’s shock following shooting deaths of five police officers, has said Police in America are being asked to do too much including even resolving some of the societal problems.
“We’re asking cops to do too much in this country,” Brown said at a Press conference updating the nation on probe into a 25-year-old African-American Micah Johnson’s shooting five police officers dead in Dallas near the end of a Black Lives Matters protest.
The activists were protesting deaths of two young black Americans in Police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota.
“We are. Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it. Here in Dallas we got a loose dog problem; let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, let’s give it to the cops. That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.”
In his frank remarks, Brown represented the feelings of law enforcement officials, who have to contend with overwhelming situations. The Chief said he is “running on fumes.”
“Seventy percent of the African American community is being raised by single women, let’s give it to the cops to solve that as well.”
Brown also told the media that he and his family “received death threats almost immediately after the shooting.”
“We’re all on edge,” Brown said of police in Dallas. “And we’re being very careful.”
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama will visit Dallas to calm the nation’s tensions in the wake of a painful week. There have been a growing number of calls across America to reform police, address crime in neighborhoods, and build greater trust between police and communities.
