Second NYPD officer honored at funeral; officers again turn backs on de Blasio
By Peter Holley January 4 at 4:20 PM
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Liu and his partner, Rafael Ramos, were shot to death Dec. 20 as they sat in their squad car in Brooklyn.
Police, public officials and mourners from across the country gathered Sunday to honor a detective killed last month in an act of violence that has roiled New York City, with a large number of officers again making their frustrations with the city’s mayor apparent by turning their backs on him as he paid tribute to the slain officer.
Defying a request from Police Commissioner William Bratton, the strident display of protest began as Mayor Bill de Blasio took the podium at the Aievoli Funeral Home in Brooklyn to eulogize Detective Wenjian Liu, reinforcing entrenched feelings of hostility that have gripped the department in the weeks since Liu and Detective Rafael Ramos were fatally shot without warning on a Brooklyn street.
In highly controversial remarks, union leaders have criticized the mayor for expressing support for demonstrations against police brutality and accused him of fostering an environment that encourages attacks on police officers.
Government officials from New York arrived for the funeral of NYPD officer Wenjian Liu. Liu was killed along with his partner officer Rafael Ramos last month. (AP)
In a memo read at roll calls Friday and Saturday, Bratton urged officers to avoid making political statements during Liu’s funeral.
“A hero’s funeral is about grieving, not grievance,” the memo said. “I issue no mandates, and I make no threats of discipline, but I remind you that when you don the uniform of this department, you are bound by the tradition, honor and decency that go with it.”
A day after Liu and Ramos were killed, New York police union leader Patrick Lynch said de Blasio “had blood on his hands.” Patrick Yoes, a national secretary with the 328,000-member Fraternal Order of Police, told the Associated Press he supported Lynch’s stance toward the mayor.
“Across this country, we seem to be under attack in the law enforcement profession, and the message to take away from this is: We are public servants. We are not public enemies,” Yoes said.
On Saturday, de Blasio and Bratton were saluted by officers as they arrived at Liu’s wake. The show of respect was a markedly different reception than the one the mayor received a week earlier, when some officers turned their backs on him in protest while he spoke at Ramos’s funeral. Today, de Blasio was received a respectful reception among police officials inside the funeral home, but the reaction outside was mixed, according to the Associated Press.
The mayor called Liu a “brave and skilled detective” but pointed out that so many of his friends and colleagues will remember him for his kindness. De Blasio recounted in detail a story about Liu responding to a call for an aging Vietnam veteran who had fallen and needed help getting up. Instead of leaving the man, de Blasio said, Liu spent hours talking to the veteran before helping the man to bed and wrapping him in blankets.
“Detective Liu was the sort of officer who when he saw someone on the street lost, he’d go over to them to ask them if they were hungry,” the mayor said. “He’d literally go over to them and buy them dinner at McDonald’s and give them a ride home.”
Bratton spoke next, discussing Liu’s decision to join the police force after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and his enduring devotion to family. The police commissioner said Liu and Ramos were “murdered for their color, slain because they were blue.”
“For seven years, he sought out the suffering, the disturbed, the injured and tried to bring them comfort,” he said.
“At the end of every tour,” Bratton later added, “he would call his father to let him know he was safe. At the end of every tour except one.”
The morning began with thousands of officers in varying shades of blue walking down 65th Street toward the funeral home. Along the way, they passed groups of solemn-looking supporters holding signs and snapping photos from the sidewalk. A black stripe could be seen over many badge numbers, a striking sign of the law enforcement community’s collective grief.
Many officers, including Ryan Andersen, 39, of Berkeley, Calif., arrived from departments across the country to pledge their support for Liu and the NYPD.
“This isn’t the type of killing that we can accept,” Andersen said. “We understand it’s part of the job. But to have an officer killed sitting there in their car and talking to his partner, that’s difficult to accept.”
“We felt it was important for us to be here for the officers of the NYPD and the city to show our support,” he added.
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