NY Democrat: Unfair to blame mayor, Holder for NYPD shootings

A Democratic New York congressman on Sunday said it was unfair to blame New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and Attorney General Eric Holder for the deaths of two police officers.

{mosads}Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) appeared on ABC’s “This Week” one day after officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot and killed while sitting in their patrol car.

Meeks said de Blasio and Holder have been “trying all along to bring the city together.”

“This heinous act is, as the mayor said, it tears away at the fabric of our society,” he added. “And so we stand with the police department.”

“We want the police to be protected. We don’t want mayhem going on in the communities. And I think that the tone that the mayor is trying to set is a tone that brings people together. And some unfortunate comments I think from Mr. Lynch, because we don’t need to divide and separate,” Meeks said.

“There’s blood on many hands tonight,” Pat Lynch, the head of New York’s Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said at a Saturday news conference, later referring to the mayor’s office.

Former Gov. George Pataki (R-N.Y.) in a tweet on Saturday blamed the “barbaric” acts on the “divisive anti-cop rhetoric” of de Blasio and Holder.

Meeks said protests after the deaths Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two unarmed black men who were killed in confrontations with white police officers, were not anti-police.

“What we were crying for was to saying how African-Americans feel, how their communities are policed and want the justice system to work for everyone,” he said.

“But, you know, everybody that was involved — we’re trying to bring people together. And you heard from the families of Michael Brown and Mr. Garner saying that they did not want any violence at all in any of the demonstrations and definitely this,” Meeks added. “They’ve stated very loudly and very clearly how shocked and how opposed they are to the violence and to this assassination of police officers that took place yesterday.”

“Even during the heart of the demonstrations, folks were saying that we don’t — we believe that 97, 98, 99 percent of the police officers do their job every day,” Meeks said. “And if you find one, we want to make sure that one justice is rendered there.”

“Let’s try to bring this city together … and this country, because it wasn’t just a New York City issue, this has been a national issue that we’ve got to focus on. And I think that that’s tremendously important to do,” he added.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of emotion involved when two police officers are killed,” said former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, appearing on the same show. ”I think when the mayor made statements about that he had to train his son to be — his son who is biracial — to be careful when he’s dealing with the police, I think that set off this latest firestorm.”

Kelly said de Blasio ran an “anti-police’ campaign when he ran for mayor.

He also said he would tell officers now to “do your job, do what you’re sworn to do.”

“And I think that’s exactly what officers will do. In my experience, in 45 years in policing, I’ve never seen officers back off from their sworn duties. I think there’s some concern that there will be a reduction or a diminishment of police services. I don’t see that happening,” he added.