After the assassination of two NYPD officers — Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu — it was interesting to see the video of NYPD officers turning their back on that city’s mayor as he walked through a hallway filled with officers.
The collective actions of that mass of officers clearly demonstrates their feelings about the mayor, his words and actions since the Garner decision. I dare say that the vast majority of officers across the country feel as if a portion of our leadership has failed us in these days of protests, demonstrations, and accusations. The allegations of mass corruption and depictions of officers as racist murderers have hit the law enforcement profession hard. To see a small portion of our political leadership standing in the ranks of those who cry out for our extermination is intolerable.
It is the general consensus among cops that those political leaders have turned their backs on law enforcement, and in return, officers have chosen to symbolically turn their backs on those leaders. I applaud those officers who had the courage to demonstrate their anger and frustration. I hope this incident serves as an example for other officers to demonstrate those same sentiments at a time of their choosing. Here are nine things I believe NYPD officers were saying with this action:
1. I will stand my post — I will continue to do my duty.
2. My head is up, my eyes are open, I am on my watch.
3. I am ready to respond. I remember and will abide by the oath that I consider sacred.
4. I will stand my ground. I will do my duty to the best of my ability and not be swayed by politics, pressure or popular opinion, as I have always done.
5. I have withstood the assaults, physical and verbal, of those who choose not to follow the law. I have seen our ranks weakened by the assassination of officers, both of their character and person.
6. I will do my duty. I am on watch. I will keep my oath. But I will turn my back to those who do not do the same.
7. We will withstand the assaults. We will suffer the accusations. We will stand, mourn, and honor those of us who fall.
8. We will stand — as we have always stood — ready to act. We are ready to defend all that we hold sacred. We are the Thin Blue Line.
9. We stand. But if your words and actions are against us, we will avert our eyes. We will stand with our back to you. We turn our backs on politics and sound bites but we will never turn our backs on those we serve, because we serve them and no other agenda.
