NY Times – January 05, 2015
by J. DAVID GOODMAN and KIRK SEMPLE
For the second time in just over a week, a river of pressed blue uniforms filled the streets of a New York City neighborhood on Sunday as law enforcement officers from across the country paid respects to a slain colleague. And for the second time, hundreds of those officers made a silent show of protest against Mayor Bill de Blasio. Almost as soon as he finished adjusting the microphone to his tall frame and began his eulogy for Officer Wenjian Liu, the protesting officers on the streets outside the funeral parlor, following the ceremony on screens and over loudspeakers, pivoted away from the building.
The action on Sunday, which followed a similar display at the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, Officer Liu’s partner, on Dec. 27, represented more than a simple repetition. Coming after a week in which the mayor sat down with police union leaders to try to defuse tensions; in which statistics reflected a de facto work slowdown by officers across the city; and in which the police commissioner explicitly asked officers not to turn their backs, it showed a willingness by the rank and file to disregard the leadership.
Mr. de Blasio ended his eulogy on Sunday with an oblique reference to the frayed relations he vowed to repair between officers and some minority communities, as well as the deepening rift between many of those same officers and his administration.
“Let us move forward by strengthening the bonds that unite us,” he said. “And let us work together to attain peace.”
Officers Liu, 32, and Ramos, 40, were shot in their parked patrol car in Brooklyn on Dec. 20 by a man who had announced on social media his intention to kill police officers, and who killed himself in a nearby subway station shortly after the shooting. Their murders shook a city already roiled by weeks of protests over policing practices, particularly after a grand jury declined to indict an officer whose chokehold contributed to the death of a black Staten Island man.
Officer Liu’s funeral was delayed until Sunday so some relatives could travel from China, and the service, held at Aievoli Funeral Home on 65th Street in Brooklyn, was an amalgam of traditions. The formal police coffin ceremony, with its choreography of bagpipes and motorcycles, pallbearers and helicopter flyover, followed a private Chinese ceremony with incense and with offerings made below a photograph of Officer Liu.
Blue bows adorned trees and telephone poles. Firefighters hung giant flags from the side of a building along with a banner of support. On a bagel shop storefront across the street from the funeral home, a message written in Chinese read: “Officer Wenjian Liu will live in our heart forever.”
Besides Mr. de Blasio, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James B. Comey, spoke during the ceremony, as did Officer Liu’s widow, Pei Xia Chen, and father, Wei Tang Liu. So did Commissioner William J. Bratton, who, along with paying tribute to Officer Liu, sought to both soothe and find common ground with his officers. “A much larger part of this city, of this country, a much larger part than you think, is proud of you,” Mr. Bratton said. Appearing to allude to a sharp downturn in arrests and tickets since the shootings, he continued: “There are people who need us. We will not abandon them. To do so would be to dishonor the memories of Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.”
Police union officials, already upset with the mayor for, in their view, seeming to condone criticism of the police, said after the shooting that the “blood on the hands” started at City Hall.
Last week, the mayor sat down with police union leaders, and though the talk was cordial, neither side acknowledged turning a corner. On Friday, Mr. Bratton sent a memo across the Police Department asking officers not to turn away from the mayor on Sunday, calling it an “act of disrespect” that distracted from the memory of the two killed officers. But he did not make the request an order, and he said no one would be punished for not heeding it.
After the funeral on Sunday, the mayor’s office declined to address the issue of turned backs. The department’s top spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.
But Edward D. Mullins, the president of the sergeants’ union, said the turned backs represented “a real problem that exists between the police and City Hall.”
He expressed surprise at the memo from Mr. Bratton.
“It was really taken as an insult, that you almost don’t have the right to express yourself,” he said, adding, “It makes the mayor look weaker than he is.”
Among the thousands lined up on 65th Street, the officers who turned their backs did so in large clusters, in small pockets and, in some cases, alone, facing their fellow officers with heads tilted down, avoiding eye contact. They came from a number of precincts, from out-of-town departments and from the ranks of the retired.
Tom Burke, who retired in 2007 after 22 years on the force, was among those who spun around outside the funeral.
“He’s been a cop hater since before he got elected mayor,” Mr. Burke said. Noting in particular the mayor’s close relationship with the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has frequently been seen leading protests against police behavior, Mr. Burke said of New York’s officers, “They’re not going to forgive him ever.”
One Metropolitan Transportation Authority officer who did not turn his back said that while he disagreed with officers near him who did, he would not criticize them. “I understand why they did it,” he said.
Officer Liu’s family did not make any public statements about the police protest. Eddie Lee, 52, a close friend of the family, said he had been with Officer Liu’s relatives when the subject came up about the first time police officers turned their backs on the mayor — at the hospital after the shooting.
Officer Liu’s parents and widow were mostly silent, Mr. Lee said, but they listened to a vocal cousin who expressed solidarity with the police.
“The mayor is still memorializing their son, and that’s a good thing,” Mr. Lee said of the discussions the relatives held. “But on this particular issue, they understand the police officers.”
Officer Liu, an only child, emigrated from China with his family in 1994, when he was 12, and though he started on a path to become an accountant, he was inspired to join the force after the Sept. 11 attacks, his family said. He became an officer in 2007.
During his eulogy, Mr. de Blasio, relaying a story from a former partner of Officer Liu’s, described a routine call to help a man who had fallen at home, what the police call a “lift.” Officer Liu and his partner picked up the man and put him in a chair, at which point their job was officially done. But the man, a Vietnam veteran, wanted to talk about his life, so Officer Liu indulged him by drinking soda with him and looking at his old photographs before the officers put the man to bed, covering him with blankets.
“He never forgot that what could’ve been a routine, by-the-book lift was transformed into a moment of profound humanity and kindness and decency,” Mr. de Blasio said. “His partner said of that visit, ‘Even though I was the senior one, I learned a lot from him.’ ”
After the eulogies, at a private family ceremony, Officer Liu’s relatives took three final bows toward the coffin, incense was lit and the coffin’s lid closed. Six pallbearers carried the coffin, covered in the green, white and blue flag of the Police Department, out to the hearse, which was driven past Officer Liu’s home, and then to Cypress Hills Cemetery.
The family and friends carried the incense to the cemetery; by Chinese tradition, it embodies the spirit of the deceased and stays lit during the entire trip. The family then stuck the incense in the ground at the grave site.
During his eulogy, Officer Liu’s father, speaking in Cantonese through an interpreter, praised his son for loyalty to the family, a dedication in keeping with Confucian practice, calling him “a filial piety son.” Officer Liu had begun paying the mortgage on his parents’ home, and when Officer Liu was married just a couple of months ago, his parents came along on the honeymoon.
“He called me every day before he finished work,” his father said, “to assure me that he is safe, and to tell me: ‘Dad, I’m coming home today. You can stop worrying now.’ ”
Reporting was contributed by Annie Correal, Jia Guo, Nate Schweber and Jeffrey E. Singer.
No comments yet.