NYPD turn backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio at officer's funeral
NEW YORK -- The service for Rafael Ramos Saturday was one of the largest police funerals in the city's history, with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden among the dignitaries. But the tradition-bound ceremony was marked by an unusual protest against Mayor Bill de Blasio.
As he rose to deliver the customary mayoral eulogy, thousands of uniformed officers outside silently turned their backs on him in a pointed display of disrespect as his image filled the large screens broadcasting the service.
"He believed in protecting others," de Blasio said as he stood behind Ramos' coffin, which was draped in the police department's flag and bathed in blue light, "and those who are called to protect others are a special breed."
Before joining the police department relatively late in his career, Ramos, known to his friends as Ralph, had worked as a school safety officer. Ramos' family said the mayor was welcome at the funeral, but even many officers who did not turn their backs said they sympathized with the gesture.
The NYPD's open distaste for de Blasio seems to have begun with the decision not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for the choking death of unarmed African-American father Eric Garner. At the time, the NYC mayor said he was "astonished by the decision and called it a "very painful day for New Yorkers." He elaborated that he had talked to his biracial son, Dante, about the potential dangers when faced with police.
"Chirlane and I have had to talk to Dante for years about the dangers that he may face," de Blasio said. "A good young man, law-abiding young man who would never think to do anything wrong. And yet, because of a history that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face, we've had to literally train him ... to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him."
"There are so many families in this city who feel that each and every night. Is my child safe?" the mayor continued. "Safe from the very people they want to have faith in as their protectors. That's the reality."
Patrick Lynch, president of the city's largest police union, said within hours of the deaths of Liu and Ramos that there was "blood on the hands" of the mayor for his comments concerning his son and protestors.
The officers' killer, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, was described by city officials as an emotionally troubled man, and fatally shot himself soon after the attack.
Brinsley, who was black, had written online that he wanted to kill police to avenge the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown — unarmed black men killed by white policemen in New York and Ferguson, Missouri, this summer.