House Speaker Paul Ryan says anger over the police shootings in Dallas must not be allowed to harden the nation’s divisions.

Speaking Friday on the House Floor, Ryan said that “justice will be done.”

He says it’s been a “long month for America” and that the nation has seen terrible and senseless things.

But he says that in debating how to respond, “let’s not lose sight of the values that unite us, our common humanity.”

Ryan says: “A few perpetrators of evil do not represent us; they do not control us.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took the floor after Ryan, joining in his expression of grief and thanking Dallas police officers for their service.

Pelosi says: “Justice will be done, justice must be done. Also mercy must be done.”

(AP)