Funeral for slain NY cop
January 4, 2015
Contravening an order not to repeat the protest at the funeral of Liu's partner Rafael Ramos last weekend, dozens of police officers - amid the thousands gathered outside a funeral home to watch the memorial service for Wenjian Liu - turned their backs as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke.
"As we start a new year, a year we're entering with hearts that are doubly heavy… let us rededicate ourselves to those great New York traditions of mutual understanding and living in harmony," de Blasio told mourners, following weeks of increased tensions between himself and New York police.
Some city police leaders accused de Blasio of contributing to anti-police sentiment by supporting protests in the wake of the killings by police officers of Eric Garner in Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Particularly under fire were de Blasio's comments that he had talked to his own son, who is of mixed race, about being wary when dealing with police.
A call to avoid any protest at Liu's funeral had been issued by the New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. "A hero's funeral is about grieving, not grievance," he wrote in a memo.
Shot in patrol car
Liu, 32, was shot dead in his patrol car on December 20 along with his partner Rafael Ramos by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who had indicated on social media that he wanted to kill officers in revenge for recent incidents where unarmed black men had been killed by police. Brinsley then turned the gun on himself.
The funeral for Liu, a newly-married man who had served in the police for seven years, involved a ceremony led by Buddhist monks and traditional police rites of farewell.
De Blasio paid tribute to Liu's "courage, sacrifice and kindness," saying he embodied the "American story" as a young man who had emigrated to the US from China with his parents at the age of 12 "in search of the American dream."
While Ramos' funeral had been held the week after the killing, Liu's was delayed to allow time for relatives from China to make the journey to attend.
se/ipj (Reuters, AP, AFP)