De Blasio infuriated police earlier this month when, after a grand jury decided not to indict a cop in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, he sympathized with Garner’s family and noted that he tells his biracial son to “take special care” around police. Even before the double-murder this weekend, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association was passing out forms to rank-and-file officers that requested de Blasio not attend police funerals due to his “consistent refusal to show police officers the support and respect they deserve.” On Saturday night, officers turned their backs to de Blasio when he arrived at a Brooklyn hospital where the two officers—Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40—were taken.
But there is a yawning gap between the kind of reforms demanded by de Blasio and the protesters and open hostility to police. Hundreds of deaths caused by police officers have gone unreported in federal statistics since 2007. Overly aggressive policing—such as the stop-and-frisk policies that de Blasio made a point of reforming—victimizes minorities across the country. While police claim they’ve been unfairly vilified by protesters over isolated incidents, Lynch and others are guilty of doing the same by denouncing the protesters for the actions of one hateful man, Ismaaiyl Brinsley.
The cops who claim Garner protesters have Liu and Ramos’s blood on their hands also seem to have forgotten what their job entails. Police don’t just enforce the law and keep the public safe, but also protect every single citizen’s fundamental rights—including the right of free speech.
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