On Tuesday, New York City police engaged in a shootout with a career criminal after they responded to reports of a domestic assault. After the shootout, which left the criminal dead and an officer with a bullet in her hand, onlookers shouted profanities and death wishes at the police.
One onlooker repeatedly screamed, “Suck my d***k! Everybody behind that line can suck my d***” according to The New York Post, while others shouted, “Get the f–k out of here!” and “All of y”all can die! I hope that happens.”
Gregory Edwards, 39, the criminal who was killed, had been arrested 16 times and was suspected of a domestic assault. The Post reported police tased him, but it didn’t slow him down, allowing him to exchange fire with officers.
One police source told the Post, “You hear this more and more. The public just has no respect for cops. All they want to do is fight cops. It never used to be that way.” Another police source added, “It all started with de Blasio. He’s the one to blame for the way the public treats cops,” citing the 2014 ambush slayings of Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. A third source echoed, “Are you surprised? Somebody’s shooting at a police officer and nobody cares. … They’re more concerned about the perp than the cop who’s there to protect them. You call the police to do a job, a cop gets shot, but they’re upset that a guy who was shooting a cop is dead.”
In 2015, after the ambush murders of Liu and Ramos, at the service honoring them, dozens of New York City police officers turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In July 2017, hundreds of NYPD officers turned their backs on de Blasio during the funeral for assassinated officer and mother of three Miosotis Familia. The New York Post reported, “Scores of officers who assembled outside the World Changers Church in The Bronx for assassinated police officer Miosotis Familia on Tuesday protested the mayor by showing the building their backs as speakers broadcast Hizzoner’s eulogy from inside. The officers chatted with one another or swiped through their phones during the mayoral snub.”
Familia was targeted and murdered while sitting in a marked police vehicle with her partner. The Daily Wire noted, “A parolee with a history of espousing anti-cop threats via social media shot the innocent officer in the head through the closed window.”
After a fight that involved gunfire in August, the Police Benevolent Association tweeted, “How are cops supposed to do our job in this environment? When will @NYPDNews or @NYCMayor @BilldeBlasio stand up & say enough is enough? Chaos is running the streets. This is outrageous — we’re lucky it wasn’t worse.”
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has also slammed de Blasio; after incidents in which NYPD officers were doused with water, he snapped on WAMC radio:
There was an incident in New York City where police officers were doused with water and the police officers walked away and got back in the car. That is wholly unacceptable. Walking away was one of the most disturbing and embarrassing actions I’ve seen, I don’t blame those officers, I believe they were relatively new. I look to the training and the policies of the police department that would’ve instructed them to act that way. The training has to be you don’t turn around and get back in the car and drive away. You literally make law enforcement ineffective and impotent and that hurts everyone. You’re assaulted; you take the perpetrator into custody; that’s what you do.