CLEVELAND — President Obama, who has used very public speeches to criticize police, on Monday quietly sent a letter to the nation’s top cop organization offering support with a promise, “We have your backs.”
In the letter, posted on Twitter by the Fraternal Order of Police but not on the White House site, Obama wrote, “Every day, you confront danger so it does not find our families, carry burdens so they do not fall to us, and courageously meet test after test to keep us safe.”
An open letter to America’s Law Enforcement from @POTUS to the @GLFOP pic.twitter.com/XQu2ykHFNS
— National FOP (@GLFOP) July 18, 2016
Obama has been criticized for being too tough on police even in speeches reacting to the killings of five cops in Dallas and three in Baton Rouge.
It was unclear why the letter wasn’t publicized, like the speeches on police that headline the White House webpage.
But in his letter to the FOP, he didn’t mention race, did not single out problems with police, or even gun control.
Instead he focused on offering support for police.
“Even when some protest you, you protect them. What is more professional than that? What is more patriotic? What is a prouder example of our most basic freedoms—to speech, to assembly, to life, and to liberty?” he wrote.
At the Republican National Convention here, speakers have been much more vocal and publicly supportive of police.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
