Peter King: Time for Obama, de Blasio to Stop Anti-Police Rhetoric

It's time for President Barack Obama, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and many in the media to "stop the cop bashing and anti-police rhetoric," New York Republican Rep. Peter King said Sunday.

"For the last four months, we've basically heard nothing other than the cops are guilty, presumed cops are guilty, then the grand jury says they're not going to be indicted," King said on Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo. "People demonstrate, March in the streets, and it's so slanted."

Saturday afternoon, New York Police Department officers Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40, were shot and killed while sitting in their marked police car in Brooklyn, where they had been stationed outside a housing complex where there had been an increase in shootings. Their killer, identified as Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, approached them at 2:47 p.m. and fired through the passenger-side window, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.

"Officer Liu, and Officer Ramos never had the opportunity to draw their weapons and may never have actually seen the assailant or murderer," Bratton said.

Brinsley had made several threats on social media about killing police officers in retributions for Staten Island resident Eric Garner and Missouri's Michael Brown. Brinsley killed himself shortly after the ambush on a nearby subway platform as he was pursued by police. He had shot his ex-girlfriend earlier Saturday in her apartment in suburban Baltimore.

King said Sunday that the case in Staten Island was "supposed to be racial," when in fact "it was an African-American chief of the police department who sent in the police officers at the request of minority business owners. The top-ranking police officer at the scene was an African American female sergeant."

But even so, that did not stop civil rights leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton and others from demonstrating, said King. Further, while de Blasio has said he wanted to be notified if there were threats against the police, but "the fact is, last week there were thousands of demonstrators in fact, earlier this week, there were thousands of demonstrators chanting they wanted dead cops, they wanted dead cops now."

Instead, said King, de Blasio has been supporting Sharpton, but he thinks national and local leaders should stop elevating him.

"The president's idea of a conversation is to find out how we can make the cops better, assuming that the cops are wrong to begin with," said King. And such opinions create a climate "where you can have mad men."

King pointed out that in Ferguson, Mo., a grand jury determined Brown was killed after coming after a police officer.

Garner was a different thing, said King, "and he should never have been killed."

But meanwhile, he thinks that athletic teams who wear shirts denouncing police officers should this week instead wear shirts defending the NYPD to show solidarity with the officers who were killed.

Related stories:

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• Police: Killer Shot Ex-Girlfriend Before Heading to NY