Just five days before Christmas, two police officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were sitting in their patrol car in the Bedford- Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York when they were shot execution style by 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley.
Credit: Flickr Commons
As police officers advanced on Brinsley, he proceeded to a nearby subway station where he killed himself with the same semiautomatic handgun that was used to murder the two officers and his ex- girlfriend in Baltimore earlier that day.
Before Brinsley assassinated the officers, he made his intentions clear in an Instagram post with a picture of his weapon and a caption saying, “I’m Putting Wings On Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours… Lets Take 2 Of Theirs #ShootThePolice #RIPErivGardner #RIPMikeBrown This May Be My Final Post I’m Putting Pigs In A Blanket.”
Along with President Obama, Mayor de Blasio, and Police Commissioner Bratton, I condemn the killing of these innocent officers. Brinsley’s extensive rap sheet includes crimes such as robbery and carrying a concealed gun. His Instagram post displays the mentality of someone who was using this time of tension between civilians and officers as an excuse to kill. The #BlackLivesMatter movement does not operate under the “an eye for an eye” principle, but rather followers of the movement want police officers and citizens to pay attention to the pattern of black men dying because of excessive use of force by officers with no subsequent justice.
In a speech, de Blasio asked the public to stop protesting for a little while: “I think it’s a 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. In the coming days, as two families prepare for funerals and figure out how to piece their lives back together, that should be our only concern: How do we support them?”
De Blasio and Bratton want protesters to stop protesting for a while out of respect for the deceased officers, but what do the protesters have to do with the killing? This revolutionary movement cannot suffer at the hands of one individual who acted against the values of the movement. Although de Blasio has asked us to discuss the mistreatment of black men by law enforcement “in due time,” such an attitude contributes to why nothing substantial has been done yet to help eradicate similar unjust deaths in minority communities. Politicians continue to push back honest discussions that we need to have and harsh realities that we need to face as they devote their attention to other issues. These ongoing protests remind us every day to think of the black men who have died so that, as a nation, we cannot keep ignoring the need for change.
Putting the movement on pause will stop conversations surrounding the relationship between minorities and law enforcement and solutions to improve police officer training and tactics. Protesters have nothing to do with the killing of the two officers, so we shouldn’t ask them to stop protesting as if they are to blame.
On the other hand, Patrick Lynch, President of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, blames Mayor de Blasio for the deaths of the officers. De Blasio has revealed conversations that he and his wife, Chirlane McCray, have with their half-black son, Dante. De Blasio said on ABC News This Week, “With Dante, very early on, we said, ‘Look, if a police officer stops you, do everything he tells you to do. Don’t move suddenly. Don’t reach for your cellphone,’ because we knew, sadly, there’s a greater chance it might be misinterpreted if it was a young man of color.” Additionally, de Blasio has condoned peaceful protests in New York for police reform.
Lynch thinks that de Blasio’s advice to his son represents anti-police rhetoric that will fuel protests. Shortly after the announcement that Officer Ramos and Liu did not make it, Lynch held a press conference where he said, “There’s blood on many hands tonight. That blood on the hands starts at City Hall in the office of the mayor.”
At Ramos’ funeral, police officers from New York and those officers who attended the funeral from all over the country turned their backs on the mayor while he was giving the eulogy.
There is no blood on de Blasio’s hands. He simply called attention to the dreaded conversation that many parents have with their black sons. It is not his fault that he had this conversation. It is not his fault that his advice to Dante was sound.
We may be itching to cast blame for the deaths of the honorable officers, but it is only dividing the city further.