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 Saturday's wake and Sunday's funeral for Wenjian Liu, believed to
be the first Chinese-American police officer killed in the line of
duty in the city, follows observances for his partner, Rafael Ramos.
Liu, 32, and Ramos, 40, were shot to death on Dec. 20 as they sat in
their squad car in Brooklyn. Their killer, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who
killed himself soon after, had said he was seeking to avenge the
deaths this summer of two unarmed black men at the hands of white
police officers.
The killing of the officers deepened a rift between the force and
the liberal mayor, who criticized the New York Police Department's
stop-and-frisk policy in his 2013 run for office and offered
qualified support for protests over the black men's deaths.
Since the officers were killed, some uniformed police have taken to
displaying disdain for de Blasio by turning their backs on the mayor
during public appearances.
 In addition, the number of arrests and court summonses in the city
has plummeted. Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, one
of several city police unions, was among those who turned their
backs on de Blasio as the mayor arrived at the hospital where Liu
and Ramos were declared dead.
Mullins said he did not know whether officers intended to repeat the
gesture at Liu's funeral, as thousands of police did last weekend as
the mayor began his eulogy for Ramos.
"I don't think I have the right to interfere in their First
Amendment rights," Mullins said in a telephone interview on Friday.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has called the wordless protests
inappropriate.
Ramos' funeral was among the largest in NYPD history. U.S. Vice
President Joe Biden and other dignitaries joined thousands of law
enforcement officers from around the country who filled the streets
outside the church where the funeral was held.
Local newspapers have said the drop in police activity is evidence
of a work slowdown by officers who fear for their safety and have
been angered by the months of protests across the country.
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City Hall and NYPD officials have been unable to answer questions on
whether a slowdown is under way since the statistics were first
reported on Tuesday. Unions have said they did not order a work
action.
De Blasio, who ran for mayor on a promise that he would mend
strained relations between police and civilians, has avoided taking
questions from reporters for nearly two weeks. He met with police
union leaders for two hours on Tuesday. The Detectives Endowment
Association's president, Michael Palladino, said in a statement that
there had been no resolution, "most likely due to some ideological
and philosophical differences."
Although they have denied a formal slowdown, Mullins and other union
leaders have encouraged members to not skirt department rules that
may seem time-consuming, including waiting for backup to arrive, in
the interest of safety.
Mullins believed police were still responding to emergencies as
before, even if they were issuing fewer tickets for minor
violations. "Car stops are a very dangerous aspect of police work,"
he said. "The public should be happy."
Liu's funeral will be held at Aievoli Funeral Home in Brooklyn, not
far from where Liu lived with his wife of two months and his
parents.
In a sign of the police force's broadening ethnic diversity, Chinese
and Buddhist funeral customs are expected to be melded with the
usual traditions of an NYPD funeral, which date to a time when the
force was almost entirely Roman Catholic men of Irish or Italian
descent. Bratton has posthumously promoted Ramos and Liu to the rank of
detective first grade, and the city has announced that two streets
in Brooklyn will bear their names.
(Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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