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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

NYC police continue protest against mayor at officer’s funeral

A lone police officer faces forward as colleagues turn their backs while New York Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during the funeral of Officer Wenjian Liu on Sunday. (Associated Press)
Jonathan Lemire Associated Press

NEW YORK – 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 the Buddha’s teachings.

Dignitaries including FBI Director James Comey and members of Congress joined police officers from around the country in a throng of more than 10,000 mourners.

Some officers and police retirees said they 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.”

The officers’ 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.”

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.