PHOTO: “The best part of this photo is the smiles on their faces,” the NYPD captioned this image on its Twitter page on Sunday. Courtesy of NYPD
By Michael V. Cusenza
After a former soldier bent on carrying out his own brand of justice killed five Dallas police officers last Thursday night, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that while the relationship between police and the communities they are sworn to protect and serve is strained, to say the least, this is both a moment for mourning with law enforcement officers, and an opportunity to arrive at a social solution—together.
“I just want to say that, again, my message to all New Yorkers is, please, today, take time to thank the police officers you meet in the course of the day. Take time to express your condolences to them,” de Blasio said last Friday. “There are police officers not only all over this city, but all over this country who are in pain right now. They feel deeply connected to those who were lost in Dallas. Families of police officers are in pain. We owe it to them to show support at this moment. Again, an unprecedented event has befallen the entire law enforcement community.
“And the other point I want to make is that we have to find a way to move forward,” the mayor continued. “Commissioner [Bill] Bratton spoke powerfully earlier about the fact that even in tragedy – even after an act of unspeakable violence – people find a way to support each other. Police and community mourn together and look for common ground. This is the work we have to do. We have to find a way as a nation to move forward together. There is a lot of history hanging over these situations, there is a lot of pain that has to be overcome. But one thing that is powerful is when people reach out to each other. And we see in the aftermath of tragedy that impulse to actually find common ground.”
Bratton said that as he was watching reports of the Dallas massacre he “was pulled back to Dec. 20, 2014, and the awful events that happened here in our city.”
On that December day, Detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were ambushed and murdered by a lone gunman as they sat in their marked NYPD vehicle. The assailant, Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, who in online rants prior to the shooting claimed his motive was revenge for the police-involved deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, ran into a nearby subway station and ended his own life on the platform. “As a Department, and as a profession, we have come very far,” Bratton said. “We have achieved real successes—and we are on the verge of achieving even more. We can be the cops we know ourselves to be, the cops the public wants, and the cops this city needs, all at the same time.
“The day before Detectives Ramos and Liu were assassinated, we held a promotion ceremony at One Police Plaza. At that ceremony, I read a note given to me by a 5-year-old boy that describes what we do: ‘Always do your best. Be good. Keep moving forward, even if you’re hurt. Always help people and keep them safe.’”
michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
