POLICE departments and union leaders nationwide are warning officials to wear bulletproof vests and avoid making inflammatory comments on social media after two New York City Police Department officers were ambushed and fatally shot on the afternoon of Dec. 20, while sitting in their patrol car.
Police say the 28-year-old gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, walked up to a police car in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn around 2:47 pm and shot the two officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, to death through the patrol car’s window. Brinsley then ran to a nearby subway station and turned the gun on himself.
“Today two of New York’s finest were shot and killed, with no warning, no provocation. They were, quite simply, assassinated,” said Police Commissioner William Bratton. “Targeted for their uniform and for the responsibility they embraced to keep the people of this city safe.”
Brinsley, an African American man, had vowed earlier that day in an Instagram post to “put wings on pigs” as retaliation for the deaths of black men at the hands of white police, referencing the shootings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, who both died in police confrontations.
The killings of the two officers, who were Hispanic and Asian, heightened national fears about the safety of law enforcement.
Police said Brinsley had an extensive criminal record, more than 15 arrests in the past 10 years, and an apparent history of mental instability that included an attempt to hang himself a year ago. He was also suspected of shooting and wounding an ex-girlfriend near Baltimore earlier before traveling to New York. While Baltimore County Police sent a fax warning that Brinsley was a suspect in the shooting and might be in New York, the message came in just as he was carrying out the attack, according to officials.
Commissioner Bratton did not release a motive for the murders, but said police were looking at social media posts and examining whether Brinsley was involved in citywide protests which erupted after two grand juries’ decisions not to indict the officers involved in the deaths of Brown and Garner.
The message on Brinsley’s Instagram post reads: “I’m putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours…let’s take 2 of theirs.” The post is accompanied by hashtags referring to Brown and Garner, whose names he invoked in his online threat.
Investigators are trying to determine if Brinsley had taken part in any of the demonstrations, or if he simply latched onto the cause for the final act in a violent “revenge” rampage.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is currently in deep tensions with the New York police union, attended a memorial service for the two officers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday. On the heels of the police deaths, De Blasio promised to reshape the negative, distrustful image projected on the NYPD, but faces criticism from officers and union leaders about his tactics.
“Our police are here to protect us, and we honor that,” the Mayor said following the Garner decision. “And at the same time, there’s a history we have to overcome, because for so many of our young people, there’s a fear.”
De Blasio has said that keeping peace in the city is his “foundational obligation” as Mayor.
On Monday, Dec. 22, Commissioner Bratton said on the “Today” show that he didn’t support the revenge assassinations of the two officers.
“I don’t think it was appropriate, particularly in that setting, but it’s reflective of the anger of some of them.”
In wake of the officers’ shootings, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged people on both sides of the issue to tone down their rhetoric, calling in a radio interview for “rational, sober conversation” later to consider reforms.
Thousands of NYPD officers were warned that they should respond to every radio call with two cars regardless, and to not make arrests “unless absolutely necessary.” They were also told to wear bulletproof vests and stay aware of their surroundings, not patrol alone and avoid confrontational people. A memo from a police chief also asked officers to limit their comments “via all venues, including social media, to expressions of sorrow and condolence.”
Around the country, police commissioners issued warnings to officers about the NYPD deaths, adding that several alerts have been delivered weeks ago following the grand jury decision in Ferguson.
“It was an attack on every single New Yorker and we have to see it as such,” De Blasio said in a statement Monday. “[The families of slain officers Liu and Ramos are] now our family and we will stand by them. Our first obligation is to respect these families in mourning. Our first obligation is to stand by them in every way we can. And I call upon everyone to focus on these families in these next days.”
“It’s time for everyone to put aside political debates, put aside protests, put aside all of the things that we will talk about in due time.”
(With reports from NBC News, Associated Press, New York Times)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek December 24-26, 2014 Sec. A pg.1)
