People from all walks of life joined family members inside a Brooklyn funeral home to pay respects to the second police officer who was murdered last month in an ambush. The air was heavy with grief and an undercurrent of seething anger at New York Mayor Bill de Blasio who many have accused for contributing to the anti police climate. Mr. Blasio however appealed for reconciliation in eulogy for Wenjian Liu. Wenjian Liu happens to be the first Chinese-American officer who was martyred in the line of duty.
There was a sea of blue uniformed officers who stood in silence. About three dozen officers were seen turning their back to the Mayor’s Eulogy for the slain police officer in spite of a fervent appeal by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton for officers to desist from any sign which will become emblematic of their contempt for the mayor.
Liu, 32, and Ramos, 40, were killed when they were ambushed by a killer who wanted to take revenge for the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hand of white officers.
Mayor de Blasio said at the funeral “New York has been from its earliest days a most tolerant of cities … but there have always been times when that harmony has been challenged. Let us rededicate ourselves to those great New York traditions of mutual understanding and living in harmony.”
It was one of the largest funerals of any fallen officer in NYPD history.
The crowd was moved to tears when Liu’s wife paid a tearful tribute to the officer as a devoted husband and son.
“Wenjian is my hero; we can always count on him.” Pei Xia Chen told the mourning multitude.
The protest by NYPD officers this time was muted and somber this time but it did highlight how bad, relations between NYPD and the Mayor have reached. Mr. Blasio was highly critical of the so called “stop-and-frisk” policy which skeptics say are often used to harass African Americans and other minority groups in his run-up to the Mayor’s office.
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