Donald Trump threw a brushback pitch Thursday at out-of-control protesters in Charlotte, North Carolina, telling an oil and gas fracking industry audience that angry rioters have 'no right' to jeopardize public safety with 'chaos and violence.'

'We honor and recognize the right of all Americans to peacefully assemble, protest and demonstrate,' Trump said at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

'But there is no right to engage in violent disruption, or to threaten the public safety and peace of others. Every single American in our country is entitled to live in a safe community. The violence against our citizens and our law enforcement must be brought to a very rapid end.'

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke to a fracking conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Thursday, detouring from remarks about energy to address race-riots in Charlotte, North Carolina that followed a police shooting

The Republican presidential nominee tied his condemnation of the riots to his outreach directed at black voters, saying the bloodshed in Charlotte's streets will mostly affect 'law-abiding African-American residents who live in these communities where the crime is so rampant.'

'It's their jobs, housing markets, schools, economic conditions that will suffer. And the first duty of government is to protect their well-being and safety,' he said.

Calling rampant crime 'an attack on the poor,' Trump said the government's job 'is not to make life more comfortable for the violent disruptor, but to make life more comfortable for the African-American pearent trying to raise their kids in peace, to walk their children to school, and to get their children great educations.'

'For every one violent protester, there are thousands of moms and dads and kids in that same community who just want to be able, really, to sleep safely at night, to be able to walk on the streets, to be able to go to the grocery store.'

He also seemed to link the drug trade to civil unrest, saying: 'If you're not aware, drugs are a very, very big factor in what you're watching on television at night.'

A campaign aide later clarified that Trump was talking generally about crime rates in inner-cities, and not specifically about the week's Charlotte flashpoint.

Trump complained that the global TV audience watching the fabric of America's cities tear itself apart are absorbing a twisted and destructive image of the United States.

'Our country looks bad to the world,' he said, 'especially when we are supposed to be the world's leader.'

'How can we lead when we can't even control our own cities?'

Authorities in Charlotte tried to quell public anger Wednesday after a police officer shot a black man, but a dusk prayer vigil turned into a march that ended with a protester critically wounded by gunfire

Trump said law-abiding black voters bear the brunt of lawless rioting – a message calculated toi win over more and more of them

BAD CHARLOTTE: Violent protesters rampaged through parts of downtown Charlotte Wednesday night as anger continued to build over the deadly police shooting of a man

AFTERMATH: A Charlotte Hornets team store was damaged in Wednesday nights clash, which included looting and numerous arrests

BROKEN WINDOWS: A Bank of America location sustained damage

There was property damage, graffiti, and looting for two consecutive nights in Charlotte

The Charlotte riots began after a black police officer shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott, a black motorist.

Law enforcement and the man's family disagree about whether or not he was armed. The police chief said Thursday that video of the shooting won't be released to the public. but it reportedly shows Scott with a ankle-holstered weapon and making a menacing move toward officers.

A separate police shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma – involving a black male suspect and a white female officer – drew Trump to question the woman's judgment on Wednesday, saying in Cleveland that she may have 'choked' under pressure.

But a day later in Pittsburgh, Trump appeared more likely to side with 'the men and women in blue.'

'Every day police officers risk their lives for, really, complete strangers,' he said. 'And every year, many of them will go out on calls nad never return.'

Trump ultimately retreated to the safe ground of insisting on better training for officers in what have become a series of American urban war zones.

'Police are entrusted with immense responsibility, and we must do everything we can to ensure that they are properly trained, that they respect all members of the public, and that any wrongdoing is always – and it will be by them – vigorously addressed,' he said. 'Has to be.'

'But our men and women in blue – and you know this – our men and women in blue need your support. They need your thanks and they need your gratitude. They are the line separating civilians and civilizaiton from total chaos.'

Trump pledged to make crime reduction a major national priority for the nation if he wins the White House in November.

'We need a national anti-crime agenda to make our cities safe again,' he said, citing 'a 17 per cent increase in violent crime in our 50 largest cities.'

And then, although he spoke to a nearly uniformly white audience, Trump once again focused his rhetoric on black voters.

'This is a national crisis, and it's the job of the next President of the United States to work with our governors and mayors,' he said, 'to address this crisis and save African-American lives.'