Vice President Joe Biden commemorated the five Dallas police officers who died and seven others who were wounded Thursday night in an unusual message.
“Although I didn’t know the five police officers who were killed, or the seven who were wounded in Dallas this week – I knew them,” Biden said in the weekly White House address Saturday.
“They were the folks I grew up with: The boy with the most courage and the most compassion; the man with a brave heart and a generous soul, whose words were always encouraging; the son who made his mother proud every time he turned and smiled at her; and the friend who you could always count on,” Biden said.
The vice president said the violence Americans have seen this week in Baton Rouge, La., St. Paul, Minn., and now Dallas, have put people on edge.
The best way to respond, Biden explained, was by acting with unity, not division — stealing a line from Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.
“In the days and weeks ahead, we’ll continue offering our thoughts and prayers to provide comfort to the broken-hearted families,” Biden said. “But they will only be redeemed by the courage of our actions that honor their memories.”
