USA: Obama urges US to reject 'despair' as he addresses police in Dallas

US President Barack Obama addressed hundreds of people in Dallas on Tuesday, at a memorial service for the five policemen who were killed at a protest organised in response to the fatal shootings of two black men last week.
Acknowledging the hurt and the confusion the recent string of violence has inflicted on the country, Obama said: "I know that Americans are struggling right now with what we’ve witnessed over the past week. First the shootings in Minnesota and Baton Rouge, the protests, then the targeting of police by the shooter here: an act not just of demented violence but of racial hatred. All of it's left us wounded and angry. And hurt."
The president also ended with a message of hope, telling the story of Shatamya Taylor, a black woman whom police "helped" as she was shot trying to protect her four young boys, one of whom now wants to become a policeman.
He finished – to a standing ovation – with: “Dallas I’m here to say: we must reject such despair. I’m here to insist, and I know that because I know America. I know how far we’ve come against impossible odds.”