Attorney General Loretta Lynch gives a statement on the recent shooting of eleven Dallas Police and DART officers that left five dead during a news conference at DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C. On July 8, 2016. Lynch to Dallas protesters: ‘Do not be discouraged’

Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Friday encouraged protesters not to allow the “heinous violence” that occurred in Dallas to silence their “important” voices.

Five police officers died and seven more were wounded in an ambush during a peaceful rally in Dallas on Thursday to protest the deaths of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota who were shot dead by police this week. Two civilians were also injured Thursday.


Lynch stressed that she is “deeply grateful” to law enforcement’s commitment to difficult and dangerous work to keep America safe but vowed that the Justice Department would do all it can to help. And she urged peaceful protesters not to give up.



“I want you to know that your voice is important,” Lynch said Friday during a news conference at the Justice Department. “Do not be discouraged by those who would use your lawful actions as cover for their heinous violence. We will continue to safeguard your constitutional rights and to work with you in the difficult mission of building a better nation and a brighter future.”

Lynch announced that the Justice Department will offer assistance to local law enforcement in Dallas, a city she described as a community “severely shaken and deeply scarred by an unfathomable tragedy.” She said DOJ and the agencies within it, including the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office, will work alongside state and local officials there.

“We intend to provide any assistance we can to investigate this attack and also to help heal a community that has been severely shaken and deeply scarred by an unfathomable tragedy,” she said. “This is an unfolding situation. We will be providing additional information when it is available and appropriate. But more so, this has been a week of profound grief and heartbreaking loss.”

Thursday’s protest was held in the wake of the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old whose death outside a Baton Rouge convenience store was captured on video, and Philando Castile, a 32-year-old whose fiancée filmed the aftermath of his death via Facebook live in Falcon Heights.

The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Louisiana encounter, and Lynch said DOJ will offer assistance to local officials leading the investigation in Minnesota.

Lynch mourned the “devastating loss” of the slain officers and empathized with the sentiments of much of the country, as Americans try to cope with the back-to-back police-involved killings this week that each gained national attention.

“Americans across our county are feeling a sense of helplessness, of uncertainty and of fear,” Lynch said. “And these feelings are understandable, and they are justified. But the answer must not be violence. The answer is never violence.”

The answer, Lynch maintained, is action — “calm, peaceful, collaborative and determined action,” she said. “We must continue working to build trust between communities and law enforcement. We must continue working to guarantee every person in this country equal justice under the law. And we must take a hard look at the ease with which wrongdoers can get their hands on deadly weapons and the frequency with which they use them.”

The DOJ chief called on Americans to consider what kind of country they want to pass on to future generations and to shun divisive impulses.

“We must reflect on the kind of country that we want to build and the kind of society that we are choosing to pass on to our children,” Lynch said. “And above all, we must reject the easy impulses of bitterness and rancor and embrace the difficult work — but the important work, the vital work — of finding a path forward together. And above everything, we must remind ourselves that we are all Americans, and that as Americans, we share not just a common land but a common life.”

And those lives lost this week, Lynch said, came from different neighborhoods and backgrounds but will be grieved by all.

“Today, they’re mourned by officers, by residents, by family and friends, by men and women and children who loved them, who needed them and who will miss them always,” she said. “They are mourned by all of us. To the families of all who lost their lives in this series of tragedies, we share your pain and your loss.”



