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| Some police officers turn their backs as Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during the funeral of New York Police Department Officer Wenjian Liu at Aievoli Funeral Home, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Liu and his partner, officer Rafael Ramos, were killed Dec. 20 as they sat in their patrol car on a Brooklyn street. The shooter, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, later killed himself. |
NEW YORK (AP)
-- Thousands of police turned their backs Sunday as Mayor Bill de
Blasio eulogized an officer shot dead with his partner, repeating a
stinging display of scorn for the mayor despite entreaties to put anger
aside.
The show of disrespect came outside the
funeral home where Officer Wenjian Liu was remembered as an incarnation
of the American dream: a man who had emigrated from China at age 12 and
devoted himself to helping others in his adopted country. The gesture
among officers watching the mayor's speech on a screen added to tensions
between the mayor and rank-and-file police even as he sought to quiet
them.
"Let us move forward by strengthening
the bonds that unite us, and let us work together to attain peace," de
Blasio said at the funeral.
Liu, 32, had
served as a policeman for seven years and was married just two months
when he was killed with his partner, Officer Rafael Ramos, on Dec. 20.
Liu's longtime aspiration to become a police officer deepened after the
Sept. 11 terror attacks, his father, Wei Tang Liu, said through tears.
And
as he finished his daily work, the only child would call to say: "I'm
coming home today. You can stop worrying now," the father recalled
during a service that blended police tradition with references to
Buddha's teachings.
Dignitaries including FBI
Director James Comey and members of Congress joined police officers from
around the country in a throng of over 10,000 mourners.
"When
one of us loses our lives, we have to come together," said Officer
Lucas Grant of the Richmond County Sheriff's Office in Augusta, Georgia.
After
hundreds of officers turned their backs to a screen where de Blasio's
remarks played during Ramos' funeral last week, Police Commissioner
William Bratton sent a memo urging respect, declaring "a hero's funeral
is about grieving, not grievance."
But some
officers and police retirees said they still felt compelled to spurn the
mayor. Police union leaders have said he contributed to an environment
that allowed the officers' slayings by supporting protests following the
police killings of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in
Ferguson, Missouri.
"The mayor has no respect
for us. Why should we have respect for him?" said retired New York
Police Department Detective Camille Sanfilippo, who was among those who
turned their backs Sunday. Retired NYPD Sgt. Laurie Carson called the
action "our only way to show our displeasure with the mayor."
Officers
spun back around when Bratton took the podium to speak. Later, de
Blasio stood outside the funeral home, to no visible reaction from
officers, observing an honor guard and other rituals.
At
Liu's wake Saturday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the officers' slayings a
tragic story of "pure and random hatred." Cuomo didn't attend the
funeral, which came as he prepared to bury his father, former Gov. Mario
Cuomo.
The officers' killer, Ismaaiyl
Brinsley, committed suicide shortly after the brazen daytime ambush on a
Brooklyn street. Investigators say Brinsley was an emotionally
disturbed loner who had made references online to the killings this
summer of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers,
vowing to put "wings on pigs" in retaliation.
The
deaths strained an already tense relationship between city police
unions and de Blasio. Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President
Patrick Lynch, whose rank-and-file union is negotiating a contract with
the city, turned his back on the mayor at a hospital the day of the
killings and said de Blasio had "blood on his hands."
Many
people, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, have since pressed all
parties to tone down the rhetoric. On Saturday, officers standing
outside Liu's wake saluted as the mayor and commissioner entered.
After
Sunday's show of disdain, Lynch said officers "have a right to have our
opinion heard, like everyone else that protests out in the city" and
noted that officers' "organic gesture" was outside the service. The
mayor got a respectful reception among police officials inside.
The NYPD declined to comment, and de Blasio spokesman Phil Walzak said the mayor was focused on honoring the fallen officers.
But
outside, retired NYPD officer John Mangan stood with a sign that read:
"God Bless the NYPD. Dump de Blasio." And Patrick Yoes, a national
secretary with the 328,000-member Fraternal Order of Police, praised
Lynch's stance toward the mayor.
"Across this
country, we seem to be under attack in the law enforcement profession,"
Yoes said. "We are public servants. We are not public enemies."
George
Breedy, a lieutenant with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Department
in Louisiana, said he wouldn't protest de Blasio. "We're here to pay
respect to the officers," Breedy said.
Liu's
funeral arrangements were delayed so relatives from China could travel
to New York, where he married Pei Xia Chen this fall.
"He is my soul mate," she said. "My hero."
