Biden: ‘Our hearts ache for you’

Vice President Biden spoke on Saturday at the funeral of a New York City police officer who was killed along with his partner, offering words of comfort and thanking God for their service.

Police officers in blue uniforms turned out in force for the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, who along with Officer Wenjian Liu, was shot and killed while they sat in their patrol car last Saturday. 

{mosads}”Our hearts ache for you,” Biden told mourners at Christ Tabernacle Church in the Glendale neighborhood of New York City.

The vice president spoke of loss from his own personal experience. His wife and daughter were killed in a car crash in 1972.

“I know from personal experience that there is little anyone can say or do to ease the pain,” he said.

Ramos and Liu were gunned down by a man who posted threats against police on social media and suggested he was acting in revenge for the death of two unarmed black men at the hands of white officers.

The killings come amid nationwide protests over race and police killings. Many officials, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed sympathy with the protestors and pressed for reforms, but were also quick to condemn the killings of the two officers.

On Saturday, Biden addressed the racial controversy, while expressing full faith in the police.

“They were part of New York’s finest and that’s not an idle phrase,” Biden said “This is probably the finest police department in the world.

“I believe that this great police force in this incredibly diverse city can and will show the nation how to bridge any divide,” he added. “You’ve done it before and you will do it again.”

The vice president spoke of New York as “a city of labels and borders and seemingly unbridgeable gaps, a city constantly grappling with the issues as old as the nation and as young as the morning headlines.”

“Yet in every neighborhood in this great city, this most alive of all cities, this chaotic miracle stands as a beacon to the world in no small part because of the sacrifices that the New York Police Department makes every day,” he added.

“Police officers and police families are a different breed,” he said. “Thank God for them.”