New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the current target of the NYPD's misdirected anger, revealed that streets in Brooklyn will be named after the two officers who were fatally shot earlier this month. Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were killed on Dec. 20 in Brooklyn by Ismaaiyl Brinsely.
The New York Observer reports that de Blasio will present the new legislation with Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito in the near future. The mayor explained the decision in a statement:
Our fallen heroes will never be forgotten. Their memory lives on in their families, and in the NYPD family, Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. And now it will live on in the streets of the communities these brave men lived in and protected. This is an expression of our pride in each of these men, and our sadness at their loss.
Legislation will be introduced co-naming Ridgewood Avenue, between Shepherd Avenue and Highland Place in Brooklyn, Detective Rafael Ramos Way. West 6th Street, between Avenue S and Avenue T in Brooklyn, will be co-named Detective Wenjian Liu Way. The blocks are the sites of the detectives’–they were posthumously promoted– respective homes, and were selected in consultation with their families, Mr. de Blasio’s office said.
Earlier in December, De Blasio's acknowledged that he understood the frustration of demonstrators who protested a Staten Island grand jury's decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for his role in Eric Garner's death. This infuriated members of law enforcement who claimed that he choose the side of the protesters and figuratively turned his back on the NYPD.
In an immature display of defiance, several officers turned their backs to de Blasio when he appeared at the hospital where Ramos and Liu died, and when he spoke at Ramos' funeral last weekend. De Blasio reportedly met with the city's police unions yesterday in attempt to ease the tension.
[via New York Observer]
