Lexington Mayor Jim Gray is reacting to the shootings this week in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Minneapolis. He called for a city-wide moment of silence at 11:45 Friday morning.
The mayor and U-S Senate candidate released the following statement:
"These are difficult and troubling times in our country. Last night's vicious tragedy in Dallas reminds us again that our police officers literally put their lives on the line every day to serve as the first line of protection and defense against crime in every city across America.At this moment, it’s important to let the investigations of the events across the country this week continue to find out what exactly happened. But it’s safe to say that we must have a national conversation about hate of all kinds and the policies we have that allow that hate to become deadly.
We can’t allow what we’ve seen in Dallas, Minneapolis and Baton Rouge to define us as a country. We owe it to everyone to come together as a nation to address these problems.
Too often, events like this lead to finger pointing, accusations and blind anger and hatred. We simply can’t let that happen this time. To stop more violence in the future, we need to address what’s causing it now and work together, all of us, to deal with it, no matter how difficult it may be. And we need to do it before we end up with even more deaths in our nation.
I offer my sincerest condolences to those who lost loved ones this week. Our thoughts are with you in this most difficult time."
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