New York mayor, police commissioner lambast funeral protests
January 6, 2015
Bill de Blasio has made his first public remarks regarding the decision of some New York Police Department officers to turn their backs on him during two recent funerals for slain policemen Rafael Ramos and Wenjin Liu.
"Those individuals who took certain actions the last two weeks, they were disrespectful to the families involved. That's the bottom line," said the mayor at a news conference held at police headquarters. "They were disrespectful to the families who lost their loved ones. I can't understand why anyone would do such a thing in the context like that."
Police Commissioner William Bratton echoed de Blasio's sentiments, saying the actions of the officers involved were selfish and that they had "embarrassed themselves," adding that it had diverted attention from the deceased.
"You don't put on the uniform and go to the funeral and engage in political action…I feel very strongly about that," Bratton told the press conference.
The rift between de Blasio and some police unions has been the biggest crisis of the mayor's first year in office. De Blasio came out in support of protesters demonstrating against police killings of unarmed black men in New York and Ferguson, Missouri, which some unions say encouraged an atmosphere of distrust toward the police.
The unions were further enraged that de Blasio admitted to telling his bi-racial son to be careful around police.
When Ismaaiyl Brinsley shot dead Ramos and Liu, allegedly in retaliation for the killings in Ferguson and New York, one police union leader said that the mayor had "blood on his hands." Estimates vary, but at the very least hundreds of officers turned to face away from de Blasio as he delivered eulogies, first for Ramos last month and again on Sunday at Liu's funeral.
Despite the tension, de Blasio also announced at Monday's press conference that homicide rates in New York City were the lowest in 2014 since modern police record-keeping began.
es/bk (AP, AFP)