House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday said Americans need to thank police officers for the daily sacrifice they make to keep people safe, a week after five Dallas cops were killed by a sniper.
“I think about Chief [David] Brown in Dallas and that press conference he gave a week ago, where he said most days, we don’t feel appreciated,” Ryan said on the House floor. “Let’s not make this most days.”
“When a member of our law enforcement wakes out of bed and has breakfast with their family and kisses their loved ones goodbye and puts that badge on and walks out the door, they go out there to keep us safe,” he said.
Ryan said when it comes to duty and sacrifice, police officers do that “every single day.”
“So I think it’s just so important that as Americans we take stock and we thank the men and women serving in our law enforcement all around this country, and what they do for us,” he said.
Ryan acknowledged the tensions building up in the country. The Dallas cops were killed by a racially motivated sniper after two black men were killed by police in Minnesota and Louisiana.
“There are a lot of people hurting,” he said. “There are a lot of people upset. High anxiety, a lot of confusion.”
“I think this is a time for us to calm down and think deliberatively,” he added.
