Hundreds of police officers outside the Queens, N.Y. church Saturday where the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos was being held turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio as he eulogized the fallen officer who was ambushed last week along with his partner. – Fox News
In a shameful act, hundreds of police officers turned their backs on the Mayor of New York City today at the funeral of those who had been assassinated. Within the last couple of days, I sent a note of condolence to the New York City police department. Two of their cops were assassinated by a deranged criminal who later committed suicide rather than face justice. Their families deserve all the support we can give them.
However, the behavior of the police officers from various parts of the country actually underlines the problem that we are having in the USA. All too many law enforcement officers, particularly police officers, see themselves as being above the law, regardless of what they say in public. Their behavior, and their ability to avoid being indicted, even when there are video recordings, even when coroners in more than one case have classified the shooting as homicide, show that we need to have that national conversation about police behavior.
Their shameful act today shows that they no longer consider themselves to be under civilian authority. They have come to expect that any authority over them will do no more than automatically support any action which they have taken. Any other attitude than that of servile support is seen as being a betrayal. Worse, rather than being obedient servants, their actions today have shown that they do not intend to allow for any meaningful oversight on their activities.
Let me emphasize again that those who turned their back—as you can see in the published photographs and post-funeral interviews—come from more than one police department in more than one state. As a veteran, any such level of disrespect would have quickly been accompanied by disciplinary action, or even dishonorable discharge, depending on the severity of the violation. A military officer would have had to have committed the most grievous of dishonorable actions before such an action would have been considered by the troops. The action of the Mayor of New York City was to have the temerity to disagree with police actions that led to the death of one of his constituents.
Thus, at a time when police departments deserve our support, they are engaging in actions which diminish public support of them. Today, I felt like turning my back on the police officers. As a veteran drafted during Viet Nam, that goes against the grain. We experienced having the general public turn their backs on us when we returned. But, the actions of the police officers today deserve only the strongest of condemnations. I would recommend that their chiefs take disciplinary action against them and that their mayors increase the amount of oversight, lest we lose control of our own police forces.
Absolutely agree with you 100 Percent. No place for double standards in this day and age.
A shame that all the points you brought up are avoided at all costs as topics of discussion in mainstream media.
Quite sad that a majority of the public servants purporting to ‘uphold’ the values of the Constitution have never bothered to read it much less understand its content and intent.
Shameful indeed.
Well said. This goes to show that police officers think they are above the law. I have lost a lot of respect for police officers. This is shameful and infantile behavior. The mayor did not say anything that deserved this behavior.
Agree completely! We aren’t even allowed to ask questions or have discussions without being accused not respecting policeman.
For once, Father Ernesto, we are in complete agreement.
I, too, absolutely agree with you.
It’s terribly disturbing to hear so many police make the ridiculous charge that the mayor “has blood on his hands” for the deaths of these officers. Your observation about their rejection of their status as being under civilian authority is right on point, as well as ominous. I am appalled.
I have a question, too. How likely is it that a good number of the officers who turned their backs were pressured to do so by other officers? Are we to believe that virtually all of NYC police really agreed with this demonstration?