NY police murders spark alerts for copycat attacks
POLICE departments across America have stepped up security, ended solo patrols and ordered officers to make arrests only ‘‘when absolutely necessary’’ amid threats of copycat attacks following the murder of two patrolmen in New York.
Detectives in several states opened investigations into new social media threats against police, which echoed the online rants published by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the New York gunman, in which he revealed his plans to target officers in revenge for the killings of two unarmed blacks by white policemen.
Most of the new threats were quickly deemed to pose no immediate danger but police chiefs have directed extra resources to search for and investigate hate-filled social media postings.
Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40, were shot at point-blank range by Brinsley, 28, as they sat in their patrol car on a Brooklyn street corner in the first targeted killings of New York police officers in several years.
Brinsley, who had a long arrest record and history of mental problems, fled on foot, threatening two power utility workers who chased him in their vehicle, before shooting himself dead in a nearby subway station as armed officers arrived.
The murders followed weeks of nationwide protests over police tactics following decisions by grand juries in New York and Missouri not to prosecute white officers in the killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.
In New York, police chiefs ordered foot patrols to work only in pairs, posted sentries outside stations, suspended operations by unarmed auxiliary officers and redeployed detectives in teams of three or more. Officers were warned to wear bullet-proof vests on duty and to cut back on unnecessary contact with the public and to take extra caution in responding to calls for help. Similar directives were implemented across the US.
In a message urging the 35,000 officers in his force, the nation’s largest, to ‘‘be safe’’, Bill Bratton, the New York police chief, said of the dead men: ‘‘They were assassinated – targeted for their uniform.’’
Police were put on high alert, although there was no evidence that any threats were imminent. The families of Garner and Brown and civil rights and political leaders, including President Barack Obama, condemned the killings. But protest leaders also criticised police union chiefs who said that Bill de Blasio, the New York mayor, had ‘‘blood on his hands’’ for backing anti-police protests.
The unions have previously called for de Blasio not to attend funerals of officers killed in the line of duty. But relatives of Ramos said that the mayor would be welcome at his funeral and the family home.