1000s of Police Arrive in NYC for Funeral of Fallen Officer

Joe Biden is among the public officials and dignitaries attending the funeral of Officer Rafael “Ralph” Ramos, the 40-year-old father of two who was gunned down last week. Ramos was sitting with his partner in their squad car as they took a break for a meal outside of a housing project in Brooklyn they were patrolling that had seen an uptick in criminal activity. Both were killed in what New York officials called an "assassination."

By early this morning, the line of mourners to get into the Ramos funeral service at Christ Tabernacle in Queens, New York, stretched for six blocks. More than 20,000 police officers from across the country are expected to attend the services.

At an eight-hour wake and memorial service on Friday, Ramos’ eldest son Justin spoke, saying, “Dad, I’m forever grateful of the sacrifices you made to provide for me and Jaden,” referring to his younger brother.

On the night of the shooting, Jaden had written on his Facebook page, “It’s horrible that someone gets shot dead just for being a police officer. I will always love you and never forget you.” The 13-year-old spoke at the memorial service, telling the overflow crowd, “Dad, you were my best friend. I’ll miss you with every fiber of my being. You are my hero.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, former mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former New York police commissioner Ray Kelly are also expected to attend, as will New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has had a prickly relationship with city’s men and women in blue. In the aftermath of the August shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and the death by chokehold in New York of Eric Garner, de Blasio had mentioned that he fears for the life of his biracial son, and NYPD officers said they felt the mayor’s comments were dishonest and disloyal to the more than 35,000-member force, the largest municipal police force in the country.

On Friday, a plane trailing a banner reading “DE BLASIO, OUR BACKS HAVE TURNED TO YOU” flew over the Hudson River in New York City, a reference to de Blasio’s visit last weekend to a NYC hospital where Ramos and his partner Wenjian Liu had been taken after the shooting. The officers were shot and killed by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who had written on social media that he planned to “put wings on pigs.”

Former police officer and blogger John Carrillo wrote on his website that the banner’s sponsor was “a large and unified group of current and retired NYC police officers, detectives and supervisors.”

“We are outraged by the mayor's incendiary rhetoric, and for facilitating the current hostile climate towards the NYPD,” the group said in a statement posted on Carrillo’s website. “We understand that the department and even our own unions can only go so far in their public condemnation of the mayor as to not irreparably damage the working relationship with the city, or future contract negotiations.”

“It is our opinion that Mayor deBlasio's dangerous and irresponsible comments about his and his wife's concern for their son's safety at the hands of the NYPD fueled the flames that led to civil unrest, and potentially to the deaths of PO Wenjian Liu and PO Rafael Ramos, as well as the continued threats against NYPD personnel,” the statement continued.  “The Mayor shows us no respect, and encourages the public to follow his lead. Mayor deBlasio clearly doesn't understand nor care that every man and woman of the NYPD would give their life to protect his son, his family, and every other resident of New York City.”

Officers again "turned their back on" de Blasio as he entered the hall to speak at Ramos's funeral. The sea of blue also turned their backs on the screen outside the hall as the mayor appeared on it.

Meanwhile, New York-based airline JetBlue flew in close to 700 police officers from across the country to attend the Ramos funeral. The airline had pledged to fly for free two officers from any police department interested in attending the funeral.

“As New York’s hometown airline, we are honored to be able to support the community in this way,” said JetBlue spokesperson Tamara Young.

Funeral plans for Wenjian Liu are still pending, as his family is waiting for relatives from China to arrive in New York. Liu came to the United States at age 12, nearly 20 years ago.  JetBlue is working with a partner airline to fly in his Chinese relatives.

But not everyone is happy that JetBlue is offering free flights to police officers and some even called for a boycott of the airline.

Flights were delayed yesterday for about an hour in Long Beach, Calif., after authorities investigated a bomb threat sent to JetBlue via Twitter that threatened to detonate a bomb on a flight coming in from Seattle. That flight landed without incident and the FBI is investigating.

Twitter later deleted the account of the person calling themselves @Swattingsquad.