When Police Abuse Language

The police officers who turn their back on New York’s mayor as he pays homage to the fallen among them fuel the cliché of an obtuse force, incapable of good judgment. It is a dangerous game that must stop.

It was a time of reflection last Saturday in Queens. The funeral for Rafael Ramos, one of two officers assassinated in their patrol vehicle 10 days earlier, had attracted colleagues from all over the United States. Thousands observed the ceremony from giant screens outside the church. Several hundreds of them turned their backs when Bill de Blasio delivered his eulogy.

This was the second time the city’s police officers treated the mayor this way. They had done the same thing when he appeared at the press conference following the death of the two officers. In both cases, however, Bill de Blasio expressed much support for law enforcement officers and those fallen. If the first demonstration of hostility was ungracious, the second was uncalled for.

The only thing that interests these police officers is to make the mayor pay for other declarations made at the beginning of December, when a grand jury had decided not to indict the officer implicated in the death of Eric Garner. Bill de Blasio, we remember, had spoken of how he and his wife had to teach their African-American son how to behave in order to avoid problems [with police].

The president of the police union reacted excessively, accusing him of having sacrificed the police for his own interests. The escalation followed the death of the two officers. Patrick Lynch has hit the ceiling. “That blood on the hands starts at City Hall in the office of the mayor,” he insisted.

Certainly, the context is extremely tense. Cries of “death to cops” are heard in the marches denouncing the work of police officers, and the murderer of these New York agents let it be heard that he was acting out of revenge — except the pretext was poorly chosen.

Mayor de Blasio only publicly declared what is said in thousands of American households. In this country, the color of one’s skin is not neutral. If yours is found to be within a certain palette and as a bonus you happen to be male, being honest will not shelter you from police questioning that might turn out badly.

It is enough to see these remarks in their context, where we search in vain for an encouragement of violence. By taking on a meaning that it doesn’t have, the union perpetuates one of the worst shortcomings of police culture: reacting excessively to a deformed perception of reality. This narrow-minded attitude has served as a pretext for countless injustices, and it does more wrong for law enforcement officials than any politician’s comment.