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Thousands of police turned their backs on NYC mayor during Sunday funeral
The Associated Press Posted: Jan 05, 2015 2:37 PM ET Last Updated: Jan 05, 2015 2:44 PM ET
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New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and police Commissioner William Bratton will speak at a news conference at police headquarters Monday, a day after thousands of police officers defied Bratton by turning their backs on the mayor during the funeral for an officer fatally shot last month.
The mayor and commissioner were to speak at 3 p.m. ET.
The news conference will be carried live at cbcnews.ca.
De Blasio and Bratton eulogized officer Wenjian Liu on Sunday as an incarnation of the American dream: a man who had emigrated from China at age 12 and devoted himself to helping others in his adopted country.
The gesture among officers watching the mayor’s speech on a screen outside a Brooklyn funeral home added to tensions between de Blasio and rank-and-file police even as he sought to mollify them. Police union leaders have said he contributed to an environment that allowed the Dec. 20 slayings of two officers by supporting protests following the police killings of unarmed black men in New York City and Ferguson, Mo.
After hundreds of officers turned their backs to a screen where de Blasio’s remarks played during slain officer Rafael Ramos’s funeral on Dec. 27, Bratton sent a memo urging respect, declaring “a hero’s funeral is about grieving, not grievance.”
Law enforcement officers stand, with some turning their backs, as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks on a monitor outside the funeral for NYPD officer Wenjian Liu on Sunday. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
With files from CBC News
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