Police snub New York mayor at funeral
Thousands of officers from across U.S. attend service for slain officer
NEW YORK— Thousands of police officers from across the U.S. packed a church and spilled onto streets outside Saturday to honour a slain New York officer as a devoted family man, aspiring chaplain and hero, though an air of unrest surrounding his ambush shooting was not completely pushed aside.
While mourners inside the church applauded politely as Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke, hundreds of officers outside turned their backs on him in a show of disrespect for what they see as his support for anti-police protesters.
The rush of officers far and wide to New York for Rafael Ramos’ funeral reminded some of the bond after the Sept. 11 attacks and superstorm Sandy.
U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden promised that the “incredibly diverse city can and will show the nation how to bridge any divide.”
Still, tensions were evident when officers turned away from giant screens showing de Blasio, who has been harshly criticized by New York Police Department union officials as a contributor to a climate of mistrust that preceded the killings of Ramos and his partner, Wenjian Liu.
After the officers were shot to death, the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, killed himself. Police said he was troubled and had shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore earlier that day. In online posts shortly before the attack, Brinsley referenced the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, both of whom were black and unarmed, by white police officers.
Police union officials in contentious contract negotiations with the city have faulted de Blasio for showing sympathy to protesters angry over the failure to file charges against the police officers involved in the deaths of Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Garner in the New York borough of Staten Island.
At a hospital after the officers’ slayings, the police union’s president, Patrick Lynch, and others turned their backs on de Blasio. Outside the church, Sgt. Myron Joseph of the suburban New Rochelle Police De- partment said he and fellow officers turned their backs spontaneously to “support our brothers in the NYPD.”
In his eulogy, de Blasio said hearts citywide were broken after the Dec. 20 shootings.
“All of this city is grieving and grieving for so many reasons,” de Blasio said. “But the most personal is that we’ve lost such a good man, and the family is in such pain.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised the sea of blue mourners for their professionalism at recent rallies over police conduct when protesters insulted them and Biden spoke passionately about the effects of the deaths.
“When an assassin’s bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the soul of an entire nation,” the vice-president said.
The killings shook the city and put a halt to large-scale local protests criticizing police over the high-profile deaths.