New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, trying to quell police tensions following the assassination-style killings of two officers, called Monday for New Yorkers to put aside political debates and protests until after the funerals for the men.
“An attack on them was an attack on all of us,” de Blasio said at a police charity luncheon, addressing the shootings of officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in Brooklyn.
“Our first obligation is to respect these families in mourning. I call upon everyone to focus on these families,” he added. “It’s time for everyone to put aside political debates, to put aside protests.”
De Blasio’s call for calm in New York City is unlikely to appease critics, many of them police officers, who say the mayor stoked the type of anti-police sentiment that resulted in the deaths of Liu and Ramos.
Over the weekend, New York City officers turned their backs on de Blasio when he arrived at an event. And the head of New York’s largest police union, Patrick Lynch, said the officers’ blood “starts on the steps of City Hall” and “in the office of the mayor.”
Authorities said the gunman targeted the New York City officers as retaliation for the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York.
De Blasio had been particularly critical of policing efforts, saying the NYPD had to overhaul their tactics to address the concerns of minority residents.
On Monday, however, de Blasio asked the public to save that debate for “another day.”
“These families are now our families, and we will stand by them,” the mayor said of the officers’ loved ones. “Just focus on these families.”
