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  • 2017-05-16 (xsd:date)
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  • Did President Obama Refuse to Turn the White House Blue to Honor Fallen Police? (en)
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  • On the evening of 15 May 2017, the White House was illuminated in blue light to commemorate Peace Officers Memorial Day, a national observance for fallen police officers instituted by President John F. Kennedy in 1962. President Trump noted the occasion in a tweet linking to his 2017 Police Officers Memorial Day proclamation: Police officers are the thin blue line whose sacrifices protect and serve us every day, and we pledge to support them as they risk their lives to safeguard ours, the proclamation said: Conservative-leaning media outlets seemed to unanimously point out in their reporting on the event that President Barack Obama had, in their words, refused to memorialize fallen officers with blue lighting after five Dallas policemen were killed by a sniper in July 2016. For example, the Washington Examiner reported: Contemporaneous press reports confirm that despite the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association's request, the Obama administration chose other means to memorialize the Dallas victims. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest spoke about the decision during a 13 July press conference: Notably absent from the Obama administration's explanation of the matter was why the idea of blue lighting was nixed, though it clearly was. As Josh Earnest stressed, Obama did commemorate the Dallas tragedy in a variety of other ways, including flying flags at half-staff and visiting with injured officers and the families of those who were slain. As reported elsewhere, the White House was illuminated on other occasions during Obama's occupancy, including bright pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (an annual tradition started by George W. Bush) and in rainbow colors to celebrate the Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage in 2015: President Trump has ordered the use of blue lighting on the White House on one previous occasion, World Autism Awareness Day on 2 April 2017. A distinction that ought to be made is between the sort of event Obama was asked to observe with blue lighting (the commemoration of five police officers murdered in Dallas in 2016) and the one President Trump observed (Peace Officers Memorial Day, held annually on 15 May). Regarding the latter, President Trump and every previous president since JFK, Obama also observed Peace Officers Memorial Day, with flags flown at half-staff and proclamations honoring the service and sacrifice of law enforcement officers. Blue lighting, however, does not seem to have been on his agenda. (en)
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