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Towards the end of his 2015 State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama attempted to find several areas on which Democrats and Republicans should be able to agree. One such issue involved the racially-charged killings of both unarmed black teenagers and NYPD officers that seemed to bitterly divide Americans over the last year.

“We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York,” Obama told the members of Congress and others in attendance, according to his prepared remarks. “But surely we can understand a father who fears his son can’t walk home without being harassed,” he said, alluding to Michael Brown and other young black men who were killed by police last year.

“Surely we can understand the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift,” Obama added, referencing the two New York City police officers killed following the protests over the Eric Garner grand jury decision.

“Surely we can agree it’s a good thing

that for the first time in 40 years, the crime rate and the incarceration rate have come down together, and use that as a starting point for Democrats and Republicans, community leaders and law enforcement, to reform America’s criminal justice system so that it protects and serves us all,” the president said.

Watch video below, via C-SPAN:

[Photo via screengrab]

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Tags: Barack Obama, ferguson, State of the Union