Obama urges greater respect, understanding after shootings

MADRID -- President Barack Obama on Sunday urged respect and restraint from Americans angered by the killing of black men by police, saying anything less does a "disservice to the cause" of ridding the criminal justice system of racial bias.

He also urged law enforcement to treat seriously complaints they are heavy-handed and intolerant, particularly toward minorities.

"I'd like all sides to listen to each other," Obama said in response to a reporter's question after he met with Spain's acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, during an abbreviated first visit to Spain as president.

Obama's appeal for greater understanding from opposing sides of the emotionally charged debate over police practices followed the weekend arrests of scores of people in Louisiana and Minnesota who protested the shooting deaths by police of black men in both states last week.

Those deaths were followed by a sniper attack Thursday in Dallas that killed five police officers and wounded seven others as they watched over a peaceful protest of the week's earlier shootings.

Among those arrested in Louisiana was an activist prominent in the Black Lives Matter movement, which gained national prominence after earlier deaths of mostly unarmed black men at the hands of police across the U.S.

Obama, in his remarks, urged protesters to recognize police officers have a difficult job.