New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton on Sunday denounced the actions of hundreds of officers who turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio during the weekend funeral for one of two city officers shot in cold blood as protests over police-involved killings roiled America.
Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat who has accused the NYPD of systemic racism, spoke Saturday during services for Rafael Ramos, who was killed Dec. 20 alongside his partner, Wenjian Liu, in their patrol car in Brooklyn.
The officers who turned their backs were watching the mayor’s remarks on screens outside the church in Queens.
“I think it was very inappropriate at that event. That funeral was held to honor Officer Ramos,” Commissioner Bratton told “Face the Nation” on CBS.
Commissioner Bratton said he did not condone the officers’ display but understands the level of frustration among his ranks. Beyond the national conversation on race, his department is engaged in frosty contract negotiations with the city.
“I think it’s probably a rift that is going to go on a while longer,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” although he expressed hope for talks with the police union.
The de Blasio appointee insisted that the mayor is supportive of the department, and even has budgeted extra dollars for his officers. He also said his department has investigated more than 50 threats against its officers since the slayings.
“I think we need to broaden the conversation to include the dangers being presented against them, also,” he said.
But critics have blasted Mr. de Blasio and President Obama as drivers of anti-police sentiment, citing their words after two unarmed black men died in separate encounters with white police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York.
The incidents set off a wave of street protests in major cities across the U.S., featuring mantras such as “black lives matter” and “hands up, don’t shoot,” and kicked off a string of public debates about how police interact with minorities suspected of crimes.
The fallout itself also came under the microscope, as police responded with force to rioting and looting in Ferguson after the shooting death of Michael Brown, a 19-year-old suspected of a robbery. In New York, city officers showed restraint in patrolling more peaceful protests over the death of Eric Garner after his arrest on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes.
During his political career, Mr. de Blasio was frequently critical of police practices such as “stop-and-frisk” searches, accused New York and other police departments of racial profiling, expressed understanding for anti-police rioters in Missouri and elsewhere, and said he advised his biracial son to be “very careful” in dealing with the New York police.
The gunman who killed the New York City officers, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, referenced the police-involved killings on social media before he shot a girlfriend near Baltimore, traveled to New York to kill police at random, and then killed himself.
Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said Sunday that Mr. de Blasio should apologize to the police force, although he did not condone the actions of the back-turning officers. He also has told the mayor that he does not have “blood on his hands” for the cop slayings, as some officers and a top union official had said.
“I said it Day One. And I think he would get this over with if he did it,” he told CBS.
He said Mr. Obama sent the wrong message by keeping company with the Rev. Al Sharpton, the divisive activist and TV host known for parachuting into civil rights debates around the country.
“You make Al Sharpton a close adviser, you are going to turn the police in America against you,” Mr. Giuliani said. “You’re going to tell the police in America, ’We don’t understand you.’ I saw this man help cause riots in New York. I have heard his anti-police invective firsthand.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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