– ‘Blood on your hands’ –
The double killing, in a city where murders are at their lowest rates in 20 years, further strained the already fraught relations between Mayor Bill de Blasio and police.
A number of officers, in apparent homage to their slain colleagues, turned their backs to the mayor at the hospital where the two cops were pronounced dead.
Police officers accuse de Blasio of failing to support them and of being too sympathetic to demonstrators who, in recent weeks, have been protesting police violence against African Americans.
“Mayor de Blasio… the blood of these two officers is clearly on your hands,” said Edward Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association of some 11,000 active or retired New York police officers.
De Blasio responded to criticism — including from former state governor George Pataki — by calling for an end to “irresponsible, overheated rhetoric that angers and divides people.”
At a news conference outside Ramos’s childhood home, 75th Precinct Community Council president Juan Rodriguez called for reform.
“Mr Mayor, you need to have a sit down and you need to get everything corrected from the mayor’s office down. This is wrong,” he said.
– ‘Worst day of my life’ –
In a Facebook posting, Ramos’s 13-year-old son Jaden wrote that he was mourning the death of the “best father.”
“Today is the worst day of my life,” he wrote.
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