Barack Obama’s appeal for calm after shootings

President Barack Obama has called for greater tolerance, respect and understanding from police officers towards the people they take an oath to protect, as well as from individuals who think officers are too heavy handed and intolerant.

“I’d like all sides to listen to each other,” Obama said as he answered a reporter’s question after meeting with Spain’s acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, during his shortened first visit to Spain as president.

It was the fourth straight day that Obama has commented on a series of distressing events back home: the fatal shootings by police of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and a sniper attack that killed five police officers and wounded seven in Dallas.