July 08, 2016 10:26 AM UTC

Colorado Senate GOP Blames Obama For Dallas Police Killings

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• by: Colorado Pols

Last night’s horrific shooting of multiple police officers assigned to a protest against police brutality in Dallas is a central point of discussion today across America. It’s a time to mourn not just the killings, but the setback such violence against police represents for an honest solution to the related issues of use of force against civilians and easy access to weapons in the United States.

Unless you’re the official mouthpiece of the Colorado Senate Republicans.

We pray today not just for the victims of these murders, and for all the loved ones and colleagues of the dead or injured in Dallas, but for this great but troubled country, which hasn’t seen domestic upheavel [sic-Pols] like this since the 1960s.

Barack Obama came into office hailed as a great “uniter,” who would heal old wounds and bring Americans together. On that count, too, he must be judged a failure, as evidenced by the division, fear, lawlessness and almost total lack of “domestic tranquility” he leaves in his wake. [Pols emphasis]

If you’re thinking Senate President Bill Cadman’s press office should have stopped at (and spell-checked) the first paragraph, well, suffice to say that we agree. We most certainly cannot see any rational path to blaming the nation’s first African-American President for the larger problem of police brutality in America, which is committed disproportionately against African-Americans. To suggest that President Barack Obama is even peripherally responsible for last night’s attack on police officers in Dallas relies on fundamentally racist presumptions.

In short, to call this response to the Dallas shootings from the Colorado Senate Republicans outrageous is a considerable understatement. It may not quite rate as badly as former Rep. Joe Walsh’s declaration of war, but it’s so far from appropriate the morning after this tragedy that it shocks the conscience in nonpartisan terms.

At the very least, please don’t accuse the gun control folks of “politicizing a shooting” ever again.