New York's finest salute fallen colleague

Some police officers protest outside church as mayor delivers his eulogy

Thousands of police officers, state troopers, sheriff's deputies and others from law enforcement agencies big and small across the United States gathered at the New York City funeral of a police officer killed along with his patrol partner in a daytime ambush a week ago.

Police helicopters flew above the Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens on Saturday in a missing-man formation, and Officer Rafael Ramos' body was carried by pallbearers in a casket draped in the New York Police Department flag. The NYPD estimates more than 20,000 officers attended.

"When an assassin's bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the soul of an entire nation," Vice-President Joe Biden said in his eulogy.

But the somber day was not without tension. During New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's eulogy, in which he said hearts citywide were broken after the Dec 20 shootings, a few hundred officers outside the church turned away from the giant screens. The mayor has been harshly criticized by New York police union officials as a contributor to a climate of mistrust that preceded the killings of Ramos and his partner, Wenjian Liu.

Sgt Myron Joseph of the New Rochelle Police Department said he and fellow officers turned their backs spontaneously to "support our brothers in the NYPD".

In a statement, De Blasio's spokesman said: "The Ramos and Liu families, our police department and our city are dealing with an unconscionable tragedy. Our sole focus is unifying this city and honoring the lives of our two police officers."

Police union officials in contract negotiations with the city have criticized De Blasio for sympathizing with protesters angry over the police deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island.

At a hospital after the officers' slayings, Patrick Lynch, the police union's president, and others turned their backs on De Blasio. Lynch said the mayor had "blood on his hands".

After the funeral, Lynch and De Blasio exchanged nods as they left. Lynch refused to answer reporters' questions about officers turning their backs.

Weeks before the shooting, Lynch had suggested officers sign a petition requesting that the mayor not attend their funerals were they to die in the line of duty.

Since the shootings, De Blasio has stood firmly by police, calling on demonstrators to halt protests temporarily and praising the department after it arrested several men charged with threatening police.

After the officers' deaths, the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, killed himself. In online posts shortly before the attack, Brinsley referenced the killings of Brown and Garner, both of whom were black, by white police officers.

Ramos and Liu were the first officers to die in the line of duty in New York since 2011. Funeral plans for Liu haven't been announced.

They have both been posthumously promoted to first-grade detective. Ramos, a married father of two, was buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery.

Officer Dustin Lindaman of the Waterloo Police Department flew from Iowa to attend Ramos' funeral.

"He's one of our brothers, and when this happens, it affects everyone in law enforcement, absolutely everyone," he said.

(China Daily 12/29/2014 page11)