Can you imagine the backlash if Garner's family, Brown's family, Diallo's family, John Crawford's family turned their back whenever a public official showed up for a funeral? Instead of one momentary outburst by a stepfather, they constantly talked about cops being thugs and we need to get rid of such thugs? NYPD not only have had their venting moment, but they continue to indulge in childish displays or petulance. I would never deny their right to show their childish protest, but this has gone on way too long and is actually making the tensions worse. It's one thing for a free civilian to protest. But part of the law enforcement's job is to reduce tensions. Their us vs them attitude is unacceptable.
When the officers were murdered, their families received expressions of sorrow from not only fellow cop families, but also ordinary civilians of all races. When the victim of a cop's excess dies, how many cops bother to go to the victim's family and express their sympathy?
First of all, Rudy Fuckface Guiliani, a law enforcement shooting a civilian is not the same equivalency of some black civilian shooting another black guy. That's because no one will defend that black civilian killer and he has a good chance of getting convicted if the cops and prosecutor take the trouble of preparing the case competently. A law enforcement official, far from being held to a higher standard considering he has the gun AND the discretion and the benefit of doubt, can usually get away scot free.
Also, when DeBlasio blasts the cops, why get bent out of shape when the same mayor also takes the trouble to blast cop killers. Should he just condemn one set of killings? Didn't Blasio condemn the cop killer in the latest incident? What more does he have to do? The cop killer is already dead. They can't do more to punish the guy.
Remember this is the same NYPD, a lot of whose members, still hold the great Serpico in disregard. THat tells a lot about their character.
Having said that, a lot of their members do exhibit bravery of one kind, the kind that makes them risk their lives when rescuing others during 9/11 type incidents. And guess what, they get appreciated for such bravery. And desevedly so. Hell, I actually support better pay for cops. Maybe this will help us get better candidates for cops or retain the good cops who have to endure a lot of crap in the system and from the street, but somehow are able to show remarkable restraint to do their job. How many times have we seen so many tiributes to the cops even on so called liberal networks for that ? It's like this group of brats will forget every instance of praise they get from the same people who dare criticize them for their mistakes.
Did anyone put Officer Ramos' wife in a situation where she felt compelled to make public statements asking fellow cops to be more civil towards the mayor the way the media and others put the victims family in a situation where they have to plead for peace towards law enforcement. Why can't the friends of Ramos(the cops who consider themselves brothers in arms) do what they expect of Brown's family or Garner's family?
And here's the thing. They are trying to use this incident to justify their excessive actions in the course of duty. But whatever tactics they use wouldn't have helped them in this case. They were ambushed by a crazy guy with no warning. Funny how when a crazy white guy killed law enforcement in PA, you didn't see any cop protests and a joyous Guiliani bashing Obama with glee on FoX over that incident.
[UPDATE]: Reading the comments , I also want to add a point about a law enforcement showing dissent with a public civilian leader. I am not 100% against it. But the way it's being done here is not only against the higher authority, but also it is a proxy for their US vs THEM attitude where the them is not just the mayor but all the civilians who have been angered by police abuses in the past. The Them includes a good number of the people they serve. If Blasio was a corrupt pol who indirectly caused these cops murder by cutting back on some budget recklessly that led to less safeguards, I can excuse some anger. But even then, the excessive thug mentality displayed by the cops is just going on too long and is such a big hurdle to further dialog.
Oh, and the kind of vitriol that goes on in cop forums is a lot more extreme than you get at a typical anti cop protest. Isn't that expression of free speech enough for the cops to vent? Or do they need to be so over the top publicly too?