Wenjian Liu's funeral over the weekend marked yet another instance where a crowd of New York City cops turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio, this time as he delivered the eulogy for the police officer who was attacked and killed last month.
The act of protest ignored a request by New York police commissioner William Bratton to
refrain from such public displays, according to Newsday.
Hundreds of police officers first turned their backs on de Blasio when he gave the eulogy for Rafael Ramos, the officer who was ambushed alongside Liu, and some also did it when the mayor spoke at an NYPD graduation ceremony last week.
"Police officers feel that City Hall has turned their backs on them, and we have a right to have our opinion heard like everyone else that protests out in the city," NYPD Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch told Newsday Sunday after Liu's service. "We did it respectfully out here in the street, not inside the church, not during the service."
Retired NYPD officer Tom Burke told The New York Times that he turned his back on the mayor because he did not believe de Blasio respected them.
"He's been a cop hater since before he got elected mayor," Burke said. "They're not going to forgive him ever."
Edward D. Mullins, the president of the NYPD sergeants' union, told The Times that he was surprised by Bratton's request for officers not to turn their back on the mayor.
"[There is] a real problem that exists between the police and City Hall," Mullins said. "It was really taken as an insult, that you almost don't have the right to express yourself. It makes the mayor look weaker than he is."
Another NYPD retiree, Laurie Carson, told Newsday that, while she understood why Bratton would make the request, she felt officers do not have many options to voice their displeasure other than in silent protest.
"I don't think it's disrespectful to the [Liu] family at all," Carson said. "It's the only way to show our displeasure with the mayor."
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