NYPD Cops Turn Backs on Mayor DeBlasio At Slain Officer’s Funeral

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Mayor de Blasio tried to make peace with the NYPD Saturday, but again was met by a Blue Wall of Resentment.

As he took the podium Saturday at the funeral of P.O. Rafael Ramos, thousands of police officers outside the church turned their backs to the video monitors showing the mayor giving his eulogy inside.

In a gradual wave, the assembled cops nearest the screens and speakers on Myrtle Avenue began to about-face, until the entire sea of blue stretching two blocks had their backs to the image of the city’s leader.

“Our hearts are aching today. We can feel it physically. We feel it deeply. New York City has lost a hero — a remarkable man because of the depths of his commitment to all around him,” de Blasio said of P.O. Rafael Ramos.

As he acknowledged the fallen officer’s family, de Blasio reached out to the still-seething rank-and-file. “I extend my condolences to another family — the family of the NYPD that is hurting so deeply right now, men and women feeling this loss so personally, so deeply, as their families feel the loss as well,” said de Blasio.
Officers outside chatted and generally ignored the eulogy until de Blasio began to speak in Spanish, which prompted snickers.

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Earlier that night, when de Blasio approached a group of NYPD’s Finest and said, “We’re all in this together,” a stone-faced officer replied, “No, we’re not.”

Many cops have blamed de Blasio for helping to create a climate of distrust in cops, turning them into targets as protests against police brutality swept through the city in the wake of a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict a cop in the July chokehold death of Eric Garner.

They pointed to de Blasio’s comments in which he called an assault by Brooklyn Bridge protesters on two NYPD lieutenants an ­“alleged” assault, even as dramatic video of the attack emerged.

De Blasio revealed in an ABC News interview earlier this month that he and First Lady Chirlane McCray had instructed their biracial son, Dante, about the “dangers” that police pose.

Things got so heated in the weeks leading up to the killings of Ramos and Liu, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association’s demanded that de Blasio stay away from the funerals of officers who could be cut down in the line of duty — a request the mayor did not oblige.

A coalition of retired NYPD cops took their anger to new heights Friday by hiring a pilot to fly across the cities skies for hours with the sign, “De Blasio, Our Backs Have Turned To You.”

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