DALLAS (AP) — The Latest on the shooting of police officers in Dallas (all times local):
12:35 p.m.
Several people around the country have been arrested for making threats against law enforcement in the wake of shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota and the killings of five officers in Dallas.
A suburban Chicago woman is accused of posting a threat on Facebook to shoot any police officer who pulls her over and asks her to get out of the car.
Police in Louisiana say a man was jailed after posting a social media video in which he says he wants to shoot and kill a police officer. Police in Bossier (BOH’-zhur) say the man made the video while sitting in a car that was behind a police unit at a fast-food drive-thru.
And in Racine, Wisconsin, police say they arrested a man who posted calls for black men to kill white police officers and their families.
12:30 p.m.
President Barack Obama contends that racial relations have improved during his presidency, but he describes that progress in measured terms.
Obama says the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and discrimination cannot be wiped away by any one milestone, whether that’s the Civil Rights Act or his election as the first black president.
But he says he’s tried to get all Americans to listen to each other on matters of race. He says he believes his voice has “been true in speaking about these issues.”
As the president put it during a news conference in Poland, “We plant seeds. And somebody else, maybe, sits under the shade of the tree that we planted.”
12:20 p.m.
Demonstrators calling for justice in the fatal police shooting of a black driver are marking a third straight day outside the Minnesota governor’s mansion in St. Paul.
A crowd that once numbered about 1,500 has dwindled to a couple of dozen protesters by midday Saturday. They formed a circle in the street in front of the governor’s residence as an organizer prayed for peace and togetherness.
On the fence in front of the mansion, protesters posted signs, some of which read “Justice for Philando” and “Stop Police Brutality.”
The demonstration was the latest to protest the death of Philando Castile, who was shot and killed during a traffic stop by a police officer in the predominantly white St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights.
12:05 p.m.
President Barack Obama says the proliferation of guns is part of the broader tensions that sometimes arise between police departments and the communities they serve.
Obama is defending his calls for stricter gun measures in the wake of the Dallas shootings that killed five and injured seven police officers.
He says police officers at times have very little margin for error in making decisions because guns are so plentiful.
Obama also says the United States is unique among advanced countries in the scale of violence that it experiences, not just through mass shootings but the spate of people shot in his hometown of Chicago.
He says the U.S. cannot identify every trouble individual before they do harm to innocent people, but it can make it harder for them to do so.
11:55 p.m.
Wimbledon champion Serena Williams says the recent fatal police shootings of two black men and the attack on police in Dallas have her worried.
Williams was asked about the episodes after winning Wimbledon on Saturday.
She says the events made her think about her nephews.
She says she’s wondering if she should call them and tell them, “Don’t go outside. If you get in your car, it might be the last time I see you.”
On Tuesday in Louisiana, a black man was shot by police. A day later in Minnesota, another black man was shot dead by an officer.
Then, five police officers were shot and killed during a protest in Dallas on Thursday.
Williams says “obviously, violence is not the answer of solving it.” She calls the Dallas shootings “very sad.”
11:45 a.m.
President Barack Obama says America is “not as divided as some suggest” while acknowledging this has been “a very tough week” for the nation.
The president says Americans of all races and backgrounds are “rightly outraged” by the deadly attack on Dallas police officers, and “rightly saddened and angered” by the fatal police shooting of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
Obama addressed matters of grief, anger of unity at a news conference in Warsaw, Poland.
He says those who protested the killings of the two black men are as outraged as anyone by the killings of five police officers in Dallas.
Obama says that “as tough, as hard, as depressing” as has been the loss of lives this week, “we’ve got a foundation to build on.”
11:15 a.m.
Many U.S. flags are flying at half-staff in Texas to honor the five officers slain in Dallas, but a South Texas judge says only the Texas flag has been lowered in his county.
Goliad County Judge Pat Calhoun, the county’s top administrator, told the Victoria Advocate (http://bit.ly/29DhLk6) that Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to lower the state flag was a “local issue.”
Calhoun says Thursday’s shooting in Dallas and another last month at an Orlando nightclub that killed 49 did not meet federal criteria for lowering the U.S. flag.
President Barack Obama in both instances ordered the American flag be lowered.
The U.S. Flag Code allows presidents and governors to lower flags for officials, military members and certain occasions, though some states have their own policies.