The funeral for fallen NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos at Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens was one of the more somber scenes in the city in recent months. Ramos and his partner, Officer Wenjian Liu, were assassinated while sitting in their patrol car eating lunch last week in Brooklyn. It was an act carried out in retaliation for the chokehold death of Eric Garner and the shooting of Ferguson teen Michael Brown last summer, and it has only deepened the divide that exists in the city. Mayor Bill de Blasio has tried in recent days to extend an olive branch to the NYPD, but it was glaringly apparent today that as a whole, the department isn't having it.
As de Blasio spoke during Ramos' funeral it was projected onto a screen outside so those that weren't able to fit in the church could still be a part of the somber service. As de Blasio spoke, hundreds of NYC officers turned their backs to the screen. It was the second time in this past week that officers have disrespected the mayor in a public gesture. When he was walking to give a formal press conference last weekend from the hospital where both officers were brought, NYPD members turned their backs to him then as well.
Today's gesture went a long way in proving that the police department and city hall are very much divided, in part because of de Blasio admitting that he had directed his biracial son on how to act if pulled over by police. It was a comment made in an attempt to make the protestors of NYC feel as though he understood them. He may have accomplished that but he also made the NYPD feel like he doesn't have their backs in this time of complete unrest.
Do you understand why the NYPD seem so reluctant to mend fences with the mayor? Do you think that the officers are justified in turning their backs on de Blasio? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
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