Last Friday, the City Police Department did what it does every year at this time and solemnly celebrated the lives of officers who sacrificed everything for the five boroughs. Thirty-four deceased members of the service were posthumously honored this year in a ceremony inside the Hall of Heroes at 1 Police Plaza.
“This is the most we’ve had in any given year and it’s too many,” said Police Commissioner Jim O’Neill. “But even one would be too many. Every name here is a precious life. Every name is a person who loved – and was loved by – his or her family, their friends, and their brothers and sisters in blue.”
The 105th Precinct in Queens Village also organized a beautiful ceremony, on Thursday, May 4, marking the two-year anniversary one of the darkest days in the history of this borough: the murder of beloved Det. Brian Moore.
On May 2, 2015, Moore was shot in the face in Springfield Gardens after asking a suspect what he was fidgeting with in his waistband. His family decided to take him off life support two days later.
Last week, Moore’s command dedicated a Memorial Wall inside the 222nd Street stationhouse featuring the young lawman’s plaque alongside those of three other members of the 105th Precinct who gave everything for the World’s Borough.
“Fidelis Ad Mortem” is written above the individual memorials. Faithful Unto Death.
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch delivered stirring remarks that, in large part, were directed toward the families of all fallen officers.
“It doesn’t get easier, the pain doesn’t go away…I wish I could tell you that it will, but it won’t,” Lynch said. “But the courage you show each and every day to be here with us; the courage you show to sit in a court room and face down his killer – that courage gives the cops out in the street the courage to get in that radio car when the call comes in.”
After that, it was Irene’s turn. It was Det. Moore’s mom’s opportunity to speak about her hero son.
“Anyone who has met my son knows Brian’s smile – his great, big smile,” she began, “and that smile mirrored his great, big heart. The capacity he had to love life, to love to laugh, his wonderful, winning personality will never be destroyed by any bullet. Brian has changed countless lives forever. And because of this, we are able to stand strong, all of us.”
Irene ended her remarks with a quote from former President Ronald Reagan.
“Wherever a beautiful soul has been, there is a trail of beautiful memories.”
And so, on this Mothers Day, Sunday, May 14, we ask you please to remember Irene and all of the mothers of slain New York City police officers. Their unimaginable pain may be eclipsed only by their incomprehensible strength.
May God bless them and may God bless the NYPD.
