Clinton on Week of Deadly Gun Violence: 'We Owe Our Children Better Than This'
She said she'll develop "national guidelines on the use of force by police."
PHILADELPHIA, PA— -- Speaking at the African Methodist Episcopal Church's conference in Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton reacted to the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the slain Dallas police officers by summarizing this week's violence as a problem the country has to address now because "we owe our children better than this."
Clinton told the crowd of a few thousand attendees from across the country that there are "too many people dead who shouldn’t be," and that there's "clear evidence that African Americans are much more likely to be killed in police incidents than any other group of Americans."
When it comes to solving the problems, Clinton asked "white Americans" to put themselves in the shoes of "black Americans," and imagine being profiled, followed around stores or worried every time their own children left home. Clinton's proposals are focused on re-building trust, and if elected, she plans to develop "national guidelines on the use of force by police officers."
"We’ll make it clear when deadly force is warranted, and when it isn’t. And we’ll emphasize proven methods for de-escalating situations before we reach that point," Clinton explained at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
"In my first budget, I will commit $1 billion to find and fund the best training programs, support new research, and make this a national policing priority," she added.
The presumptive Democratic nominee also said that in order to defeat the "implicit bias" that exists "even in the best police departments," the country must celebrate the work law enforcement does every day.
"Last night in Dallas, during a peaceful protest related to those killings, there was a vicious, appalling attack," Clinton said at the top of her remarks referring to the shooting which caused her campaign to postpone a Friday event with Vice President Joe Biden. The former secretary of state then asked citizens to put themselves in the shoes of police officers.
"When gunfire broke out yesterday, and everyone ran to safety, the police officers ran the other way -- into the gunfire. That’s the kind of courage our police and first responders show every single day," she said.
The former secretary of state has made criminal justice reform a central issue in her campaign, and she is frequently joined on the campaign trail by some of the “Mothers of the Movement” (women who have lost a child to gun violence or allegations of police brutality), including the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland.
