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New York police tell their mayor: You have blood on your hands
New York officers furious at Bill de Blasio’s support for anti-police protests turned their backs on mayor as he pays last respects to two murdered officers
Angry New York police officers turned their backs on the city’s mayor yesterday when he arrived to pay respects to the two patrolmen shot dead by a gunman apparently inspired by recent anti-police protests.
In a snub captured on video, a line of uniformed officers and union leaders turned silently to face the corridor walls of a Brooklyn hospital rather than look at Bill de Blasio, the Democrat mayor who some claim has betrayed them.
Rafael Ramos, 40, and Wenjian Liu, 32, were shot at point-blank range as they sat in their patrol car, by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, an African-American criminal, on Saturday night.
He had promised on social media to avenge the deaths of two unarmed black men killed in encounters with police.
Many officers are furious that Mr de Blasio has backed protesters who have staged anti-police rallies, some chanting “death to cops”, following decisions by grand juries in New York and Missouri not to prosecute white officers for the killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.
“There’s blood on many hands tonight,” said Patrick Lynch, the leader of the largest police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA), after helping to organise the back-turning snub. “That blood starts on the steps of City Hall, in the office of the mayor.”
Ed Mullins, the president of the sergeants’ association, went even further. “Mayor de Blasio, the blood of these two officers is clearly on your hands,” he said. “I only hope and pray that more of these ambushes and executions do not happen again.”
Even before the killings, the unions had urged the mayor to stay away from funerals of police officers killed in the line of duty, issuing members with a waiver to sign entitled “Don’t Insult My Sacrifice”.
In a Facebook posting yesterday, Officer Ramos’s 13-year-old son Jaden captured the mood of many in the police department. “This is the worst day of my life,” he wrote. “He was the best father I could ask for. It’s horrible that someone gets shot dead just for being a police officer. Everyone says they hate cops but they are the people that they call for help.”
Bill Bratton, the city’s police chief, has defended the mayor and rebuked the unions for their stance, while Mr de Blasio accused the PBA of “playing politics”.
The two officers were “quite simply assassinated”, Mr Bratton said. Officer Ramos, a father of two, and Officer Liu, who had been married for just two months, were sitting in their patrol car in New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood when Brinsley emerged from a nearby housing estate and shot them. It is thought the policemen were not even aware of the threat.
Brinsley, 28, then ran into a crowded subway station and shot himself in the head as armed officers closed in. Earlier in the day, he shot and wounded his former girlfriend at Owings Mill, about 15 miles from Baltimore, before making his way to New York.
Police investigating the Baltimore shooting found Brinsley’s online boasts that he planned to murder officers in revenge for the deaths of Mr Garner and Mr Brown. He posted a picture of an automatic handgun with the chilling message: “I’m Putting Wings On Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours ... Let’s Take 2 of Theirs.”
Baltimore detectives sent an alert to their New York counterparts, but the warning was received only at about the time that Brinsley conducted his attacks. Detectives are now investigating Brinsley’s reported membership of the Black Guerrilla Family, a notorious prison gang that has declared war on the New York police department.
Mr de Blasio aroused particular police fury when he said that he and his wife, who is black, had instructed their mixed race teenage son to “take special care” in any encounters with officers. Union leaders said the comment implied that police officers were to be feared.
The families of Mr Garner and Mr Brown and civil rights leaders denounced the killings. In a statement acknowledging anti-law enforcement feelings after the Garner and Brown deaths, President Barack Obama urged support for police saying they “deserve our respect and gratitude every single day”.
With tensions high, a police officer in Florida was also shot dead early yesterday, but that killing appeared to be the result of a call-out to handle a noise complaint and unrelated to the New York murders.