Police turn backs on New York City Mayor de Blasio while he was speaking at funeral.
Law enforcement officers turned their backs on a large video monitor near the Christ Tabernacle Church in the Queens as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke during the funeral of slain New York Police Department officer Rafael Ramos inside Christ Tabernacle Church on Dec. 27, 2014.
This was the second time police officers publicly turned their backs on de Blasio. The night Ramos and Liu were shot and pronounced dead, police officers at the hospital turned their backs on de Blasio when he walked through the hallway where they were standing.
Today during the funeral service retired NYPD Officer John Mangan held a sign that read: “God Bless the NYPD. Dump de Blasio.”
Police officers are expressing their dissatisfaction with de Blasio’s lack of support. After the grand jury decision, Mayor de Blasio discussed the raising of his biracial teenage son, Dante, saying he and his wife had instructed their son to “take special care” during police encounters.
The president of the police union group Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, Patrick J. Lynch, blamed the mayor and the protesters of the grand jury acquittal in the Eric Garner case for inciting hostility toward the NYPD. Lynch said in a statement before television cameras, “There’s blood on many hands tonight. Those that incited violence on the street in the guise of protest, that tried to tear down what New York City police officers did every day. We tried to warn it must not go on, it shouldn’t be tolerated. That blood on the hands starts at the steps of City Hall in the office of the mayor.”
On December 22, de Blasio asked that anti-police protesters “suspend demonstrations.” Earlier in the day, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said the killings were a “direct spinoff of the protests, but he did not put direct blame on the mayor.
Commissioner Bill Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio gave remarks after two NYPD police officers were gunned down in Brooklyn.
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