"What is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant." RFK

On Saturday afternoon, NYPD officers Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40, were killed by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, who approached them at 2:47 p.m. and fired through the passenger-side window of their squad car, explained Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, his voice full of emotion. Brinsley killed himself shortly after the ambush on a nearby subway platform as he was pursued by police. He had shot and seriously wounded his ex-girlfriend earlier Saturday in her Baltimore apartment. Brinsley had made threats on social media about killing police in retribution for Staten Island resident Eric Garner - killed while resisting arrest when he was taken down by an NYPD policeman who used a chokehold, and who should not have been killed, according to many experts - and Ferguson, Missouri, teenager Michael Brown - who was shot while charging a local police officer after being told several times to stop. New York Representative Peter King said Sunday that the case in Staten Island was "supposed to be racial," when in fact "it was an African-American chief of the police department who sent in the police officers at the request of minority business owners. The top-ranking police officer at the scene was an African American female sergeant." Further, while King noted that New York City Mayor de Blasio said he wanted to be notified if there were threats against the police : "the fact is, last week there were thousands of demonstrators in fact, earlier this week, there were thousands of demonstrators chanting they wanted dead cops, they wanted dead cops now." Instead, said King, de Blasio has been supporting the Reverend Al Sharpton, who, King thinks, should not be "elevated" by national and local leaders. Concerning President Obama, King said : "The President's idea of a conversation is to find out how we can make the cops better, assuming that the cops are wrong to begin with....And such opinions create a climate "where you can have mad men...." King thinks that athletic teams who wear shirts denouncing police officers should this week instead wear shirts defending the NYPD to show solidarity with the officers who were killed. ~~~~~ Calling the shootings an "assassination," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Saturday : "It is an attack on all of us." Today at a police luncheon, de Blasio expanded, saying that the killings were an attack on democracy and on every New Yorker. But in the hours after the shooting, the increasing tensions in New York were evident. As Mayor de Blasio approached the podium to make his statement Saturday, police officers turned their backs to him. After de Blasio spoke, police union chief Pat Lynch declared : "There's blood on many hands tonight. That blood on the hands starts at City Hall in the Office of the Mayor." Many police officials say the Mayor has betrayed them. He has not stood beside them as protesters have taken to the streets since the grand jury decision not to indict a police officer in Garner's death. Worse, the Mayor said in a press conference after the Garner grand jury decision that he has told his bi-racial son to "take special care" during police encounters. Some police had circulated a petition to request that de Blasio not come to their funeral if they were killed in the line of duty. Meanwhile, outside the hospital where the two police were taken Saturday, one Daily Beast reporter heard expletives yelled and said that some people were saying : "Serves them right because you mistreat people!" Police are saying, "I told you so." Gary McLhinney, a negotiator for police unions, told the Washington Post : "Unfortunately, I don't believe anyone connected to law enforcement is surprised this happened. When our leaders make statements that encourage lawlessness and demean an entire profession, this is the result." ~~~~~ But, again this weekend after the NYPD police officers' murders, sporadic violence erupted in incidents across the city as some 30,000 protesters marched, disrupting traffic and chanting slogans against the grand jury decision and the NYPD. And on Saturday night, a small breakaway group caused a disturbance on the Brooklyn Bridge, reportedly tossing materials onto the roadway below the pedestrian bridge and then assaulting two police lieutenants, leaving both hospitalized, one with a broken nose. ~~~~~ On Monday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, spiritual head of the area’s millions of Catholics spoke out, urging both sides to “tune down the volume and speak calmly” as anger continues to rise. Cardinal Dolan, the charismatic archbishop of 2.6 million Catholics in much of New York City (Brooklyn and Queens are in a separate archdiocese with 1.6 million more Catholic residents), is in many ways in a unique position as a broker of peace in the city, remaining a highly respected religious official among the New York Police Department, many of whose traditions have been formed by the Irish Catholic heritage of New York City and the NYPD. Cardinal Dolan also helped after the Garner death in July, when de Blasio outraged police by giving the Reverend Al Sharpton, a controversial civil rights activist, a prominent place in a forum about police and community relations. The Mayor asked Dolan to host a second meeting with the city’s spiritual leaders before a major protest against Garner’s killing in August - a move that drew “kudos” from the NYPD at the time, who said the Cardinal had respect and credibility among the rank and file. ~~~~~ Dear readers, Rudi Giuliani is one of New York City's mythic mayors. Who will forget his presence the minutes and days after the 9/11 attacks. Giuliani commented this weekend about the Saturday police officer killings : "The officers' deaths were assassinations that came after months of propaganda about how the police are the enemy of the black community." Giuliani said Sunday on Fox News that anti-police propaganda was to blame : "And it's certainly true that we have been treated to about three to four months of propaganda about how the police are the enemy...[about how] the police are the problem...[about how] they are the major problem between the police and the black community." He insisted he does not blame de Blasio directly for the murders, but for "for allowing the protests to get out of control." And, dear readers, what else could we have expected. When large groups of protesters do not immediately separate themselves and their cause from those mingled with them on the street who are shouting "Kill the cops" - and when those same protesters seem to agree because they join in the chant and both verbally and physically abuse police simply trying to allow their protests to proceed - neither they nor anyone else should be surprised if a mentally or emotionally unstable person takes the protesters at their word and actually kills a policeman. That is exactly what happened in New York City on Saturday. NYPD officers Liu and Ramos were shot in the head and killed while they were eating their lunches sitting in their squad car parked on a Brooklyn street. Inevitable. Inexcusable. It is time for President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to prove that they are more concerned about America and its police than about their left-leaning friends, like the Reverend Al Sharpton, who are doing their best to drive American race relations back to 1960. It is time for our President to stop making pious, negatively biased comments about police and speak up for all Americans -- white, Asian, Hispanic, African-American - who are law-abiding citizens trying to hold their families together economically, raise their children to be respectful of everyone, including police ("cop" is a word I was taught never to use because it is disrespectful), who genuinely want all Americans to live together in peace and brotherhood. It is disheartening that 1% of black leaders who are out-of-touch relics from the 1960s civil rights marches are pushing young Americans to take up a long since concluded movement. Today, we need jobs and training for unemployed Americans of all races and ethnic backgrounds so that they can be successfully employed. We need a concerted effort to help black communities govern themselves so that race is removed from the local equation. We need to hear from honorable, thoughtful people of all races about what they see as problems and about their ideas for solving those problems. We do not need mindless protesters shouting to kill police while they attack them. That is not how Dr. King won his battle. That is not how Rosa Parks behaved. That is not what Robert Kennedy put his life on the line for : "What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists, is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents." ___Robert Kennedy.