Just a job to provide for myself and his parents, but a career that he enjoyed and more importantly passionate about it even though he spent a lot of hours working, he was always love for his work. We spoke about the law and how he applied the law. He was objective in his determination of the law with courtesy, we areith respect and with the highest professionism. Although he worked often, he always took time to spend with me his number one fan and his pamly and friends. He was always there when somebody needed something. When wenjian was not working, he
cared a lot for the chinese community. He wanted to always do his best to help and support. The very community that he was part of wenjians kind heart loved by his friend and colleagues and our extended family ha isthat is here today. The caring son, a loving husband and a loyal friend. You are an amazing man even though you left us early, but i believe that he will have his loving spirit to continue to look out for us. He will keep an eye over us. Wenjian is my hero. We can always count on him. Again, i thank you, my extended family my fam ily of blue for attending todays services, thank you. Wen wenjian will always be in my hearts. I love you, i love you forever. [ applause ]
ing breaking news, the ongoing Funeral Service for new York Police Detective wenjian liu and you heard the widow, and the two with were married for four month, and gave what is a remarkably brave eulogy about her slain hudzsband and talking about how she was his soulmate and best friend and only son of immigrant, and very, very dedicated to his parents and mot to mention the people of new york city whom he risked his life and then died trying to protect them. There are thousands of people crowding the streets outside the Brooklyn Funeral Home where this service is under way, and the Police Officers are standing shouldertoshoulder and notably some officers did turn their officers as the new york mayor Bill De Blasio did deliver
a eulogy. Inside the Drekirector Fbi and the Police Commissioner and as i mentioned, officer lius widow and his father. And his father did not speak in english, but you did not have to understand the language to feel his pain. It was really a heartbreaking, heartbreaking event. Liu and his partner rafael ramos were gunned down December 27th when they were gunned down in their squad car, and we will be joined by Miguel Marquez who is outside of the Funeral Services. Miguel can you tell us about the scene there among the thousands of men in blue who came all around the country to at tend this funeral. Reporter for the bulk of the entire ceremony there was a
contingent of asian officers just outside of the church here, and we believe that the coffin of officer liu is coming out soon and nypd officer did come up and ask whether we will be broadcasting live or speaking at that time, and that is something that they want to keep very somber event here to honor this Police Officer as his casket moves towards its final resting place. With the are regard to the Police Officers turning their back here in front of the funeral home there were zero. No Police Officers who turned their back. Just down from here, on the Processional Route where the casket will go there with were some Police Officers who did turn their backs according to our sara ganim who is down tlhere and other producers who saw them but much smaller number than last week, and the Police Commissioner asking by memo to
the police force that it was not an appropriate thing to do. That it is a time for grieving and not grievance and that when they turned their back on the mayor during officer ramos funeral last week they did no valor to the officers sacrifice and honor of his job in doing so. So he has asked them not to do it now. You can see now the Police Officers are lining up now. This is the ceremonial unit of the nypd lining up in order to receive the body the casket of officer liu. We expect to see that coming out of here shortly. It looks like they may be slightly ahead of schedule and though it is a little unclear that the family did arrive an hour before the ceremony began and several speakers to listen to his father speak, and i dont speak cantonese, but to listen to him speaking and trying to
get through the words and emotion, and it was hard to watch that. This was meant to go for another hour and he may be coming out soon. The ceremony they had in there was a lot of individuals bringing food to the location of the casket and also burning pieces of paper or cardboard to symbolize things from the physical word the food and those symbol ss are things that officer liu in the buddhist tradition would take on to the next life. Dana . Miguel i agree with you to watch his father to lose any child is just defy sies the laws of nature, but to lose your only son as he did is just words just cant can express how much grief he must be feeling right now. Thank you very much and stand by us miguel because we want to go to cnn correspondent sarah
again mim who ganim who is outside of the funeral home. Can you hear me . Yes, it is dana bash sarah, and can you hear us . We are having trouble getting her ifp working, and we will go inside of the studio to tom fuentes, and you are a Law Enforcement analyst, but also a cop on the beat where you started outside of chicago for six years. And for those of us who have never served or had the honor of serving, talk about what is it like, and what has drawn thousands of people around the country including towns like chicago for this funeral . Well to understand Police Officers it helps to have been one and having been in the life of a Police Officer. It is not a job but a way of life and not just for you, but the family. It is what has been carried
through for the ramos and liu families they have to live with the life and the fear and the threat, and i know my mother who had passed away now, she had a husband and two sons who were Police Officers at the same time, and she had this worry every day. I cannot imagine. I cannot imagine. The koncontroversy about what these officers faced when it came to racial protests and some of the protests getting personal when it came to the Police Officers after the killings in Ferguson Missouri of black teenagers in new york city. As somebody who has bp on the street and been on the beat what strikes you when you see all of this . What strikes me is that the one message that people dont really realize and the one thing about being a Police Officer is that you realize in the entire
criminal Justice System, and in the entire medical system and the entire Community Leader ss, the Police Officer deals with the victim. The victims die in your arms and the victims die in the ambulance with you in the hospital or in the surgery at the hospital after they have been shot is or stabbed or involved in a terrible accident and it is the police and there is an image that the police have no empathy or sympathy for the members of the public and in the arereality, they have more. The hardened exterior to cope with that is the fact that the police see itt everyday. If the they have animosity, and the the guys carrying the guns in the community, and the gangbangers gunning down other members, it is because they are seeing the the people shot by the gangs, and the people victimized by the crime. Absolutely. So i want to turn back to the scene so that the viewers know what we are look ging at, the
funeral just concluded, and we are watching the sea of blue Police Officers from all over there, and you will see the color guard getting ready, and looks like we are waiting for the casket to come out to take wen wenjian liu to his final resting place. Miguel marquez is there. These funerals are so tough to watch and to see this brotherhood and sisterhood to come together. If you can pan over here, ricky, this is the ceremonial unit Inside Of The Funeral Home. They are now lining up outside of the funeral home and the Co Color Guard with the u. S. Flag the new york citying in ing inand the nypd flag are going to line up in front of the hearse that will take detective liu to his final resting place. The level of mourning and the
sense of the sol Lumemn Nature of what is happening here is unmistakable. What we saw here today is a service that we are not accustomed to and to hear his father speak in cantonese, and even though none of us spoke cantonese, it was very clear and the love of his son was very clear. They did some translation afterwards to talk about how his son would heldp him come work in the Garment District after his school work and he would call him and very conscientious and good son. The mayor talked about detective lius love of fishing. And his cousin spoke about, and we all called him wenjian liu, but his family called him joe. It is how they have become an American Family in their own
way, and now with the ceremonial unit out of the the funeral home it seems that they are now waiting for the mayor of the other dignitaries and the other director to come out, and then we believe we will see the casket of Wenji Aan Liu come out of the funeral home to make its way. And what miguel is talking about is so true in that what you heard in the eulogies and throughout the service is that people were humanizing him, and he was not a number or a cop on the beat that was killed, but a human being with a family who loved him so much but another thing is what truely american story this is. And so classic new york. And so specific new york you have the son of immigrants coming in and really wanting to be a Good American as they called him joe, and looking at
the line of work that he chose. And for many of the immigrant families especially when a son or daughter says that i want to be a Police Officer, the families coming in from other countries, they say, you cant be a Police Aufofficer in the United States, and this is the wild west and the rest of america looks at us with our 300 million gun s ins in a population of 320 million looks at us as violence and Out Of Control and the violence on the streets and the wild west atmosphere and so in some ways when they hear that their Family Members want to be a Police Officer, they rare terrified, and that is probably why he had to call his dad after every shift to say he is still alive he made him. And i would want my son to call me after his shift everyday too, so i understand. And we have a sea of oblue and police men from all over the country to attend the funeral, and sara can you tell us what you are seeing . Yes, dana this is the procession route, and i have stepped away from the route to be respectful not to disrupt the officers who are lined up to watch the ceremony, but they have lined up here and listened to every single speaker, and Tens Of Thousands is of officers are here to pay their respects. It is not the brightest or the warmest or the driest of days here in brooklyn but they did not come out in any less numbers as they did last week for officer ramos funeral. You heard are from wenjian lius father who spoke in mandarin and he said that he was so proud of his son to be a member of the nypd and to help the Immigrant Community when he was not working. And we heard a couple of notable
things prfrom the fbi director james comey and new york mayor Bill De Blasio and we wondered if there would be an honor of the commissioner to not turn their back on the mayor as he spoke, and we did see some officers turn around and not a majority and not even half of the officers where we were standing, but some. And more than the nypd and some officers who were from out of town who also turned around for the speech. This tepgs between the nypd and the mayor have been growing since the protest in new york, but many of the officers i have spoken to here from nypd and out of town say they dont believe that the funeral for a fallen officer is a place for that. And to give you the idea of how many officers are here this is a sea of blue for nearly a mile and this is how long the route
is for those who want to pay their respects. Jetblue flew in more than 1,100 officers from all over the country for free. I have seen badges and vehicles from cincinnati and virginia and connecticut and california and it is a long way to come. I have talked to three officers who came from outside of new orleans and they said it was incredibly important for them to be here for this, and not to show support for the fallen officer, but also because they feel that they do still get the re respect and earn the respect of the majority of the nation, and they wanted to show that to the world by coming here to this funeral, and just another note dana about security here because it is not just Police Officers, but it is a lot of the communities here in the streets, and we are seeing the patrols on the roofs, and canine units and helicopters and many of the units are blocked off on the
procession route where the casket is going to be driven down to the cemetery. It is not the only roadblocked off here. They are making sure that it is a safe place for them to hold this ceremony and to hold a proper funeral for one of their fallen. Dana. Thank you and great the information and color there. I should mention that as you were speaking sara we saw some of the congressional delegation exiting the funeral home there. Is another one, peter king, the republican from new york coming out, and some other well known republicans, Charlie Rangel and congressman joe crowley who was on the show earlier today whose father and grandfather who were both new york city Police Officers and so we are watching the dignitaries come out, and that probably means not too far behind will be the casket of the slain officer, and while we are watching that i want to turn back to tom fuentes. And you heard sara talking about despite the commissioner bill bratton asking the Rank And File not the turn their backs, some did. She reported very important to note that it was not the number that it was at rafael ramos funeral, but it happen ded nonetheless from a treatise from their leader because it detracts from the respects of their fallen comrade. And tom, what do you make of that as a former officer . I think they should not have done it in my opinion, it is not the time or place as mentioned by Commissioner Bratton. And i thought that Commissioner Brattons request to not do it and he said that he would not discipline any officers and no repercussions that way, and he requested it as a fellow officer, and he was a fellow officer in the 1970s when we were pigs and spit on and he
thought that Police Officers out there out of respect for him, and despite the feelings for the mayor which are neg thetive and deep, but out of respect for him, they might honor that respect. And let me play The Devils Advocate they defect the Freedom Of Speech everyday and why shouldnt they have their Freedom Of Speech . Why shouldnt they display their ainge anger if they are angry . They should, but by doing it today, they are talking about that instead of the great life of officer ramos, and their parents, and the other great officers in the world, and talk act this issue and that is the reason enough not to do it. I get that. And the big picture, and the years you were a cop . Yes, in illinois, and 1970 to 1973 when i became a member of the fbi. And racial issues have
changed since then, and society has changed since then but is this something that the police force focus odd n . Absolutely. The idea that when people say we need Community Policing. They have had Community Policing. My father was a Police Officer and it was a kid going with him to Community Events and chaperoning field trips and dances and all of that and i was 1 years old when he was a Police Officer, and the idea that the police need to get into the community and work them, and when you talk about what officer liu and ramos did in their communities tashgs i are a part of that as well as thousands of nypd officers engaged everyday in their community and in the neighborhoods talking to the people trying to help in the policing that they are doing. I the think that is part of what the police are upset about with the public rhetoric that they have not done Community Policing or they need training because they dont know how to talk to people. Police aufofficers have a phd in
street psychology and if they dont talk to somebody properly it is because they dont want to and not because they dont know how. It is not because they need to take classes on wrestling, because the modern Police Officer has to be a wrestler and telling somebody they are under arrest and the person wont comply that is not going to cut it. And the rhetoric about policing needs to be that we need to have a discussion and not accusations back and forth by sound bite. And on that note, we need to return to the solemnity of this moment and hopefully we can see another picture of the sea of blue because it is powerful and poignant. And there it is. And before we go to t rehe reporters in the sea, tom, as a former Police Officer, yourself and what goes through your mind as you see that e remarkable scene. The brother 450d and the sisterhood of Law Enforcement, and why it is close, and why the remind minder of it. 115 Police Officers have died in
the line of duty this year, and it is because of the recent amount of Public Discussion that has been so negative about policingch that is actually contributing to the Police Officers wanting to travel from california and canada and new orleans to come to be a part of this because they realize that they need to show the solidarity of being in the profession and calling together. Well, it is looking like solidarity and achieving that by looking at the pictures. Miguel marquez, i want to bring you back in, and listening to tom fuentes and being a Police Officer, and looking at the Police Officers from all over the country, and i would believe that is the sentiment that you are seeing there on the ground . Yes, it sis, and i can see a half mile down and you can see a fine line of blue all of the way down. They have created just enough space in the very wide street so that the Funeral Cortege can make its way down that way. The mayor is speakingt that funeral in a personal way about detective liu. Also this attack on both detective liu and ramos was not just an attack on two individuals, but it was an attack on the city of new york. The police work the Police Department being the bedrock of civil society, and the necessity to honor Police Officers and to have a Good Relationship between the political set and the police set. So my sense is that the rancor that we have seen in the recent weeks, and the anger in recent weeks h will find ss will find a newer and bet better level, and we have seen in the last half hour not only dignities, but Police Officer s to come out of the funeral home, and we expect to see the casket of detective liu to emerge shortly for the final ride to
its final resting place. And miguel, you have sort of been experiencing the whiplash of emotions there in new york city and now more the past couple of weeks, because of the assassination of these two Police Officers but then just prior to that the anger at the Justice System and in many ways, the cops that we have heard, but the Justice System because eric garner who was now Everybody Knows was killed during an arrest after he was trying to illegally sell cigarettes and the uproar about no indictments about that. That is the ancillary and i have logged many miles as they have angrily taken over to the streets here and that is where a lot of the rancor between the
mayor and the nypd comes from. There were beat cops walking alongside the protesters and stopping the traffic to make sure they could be safe and making sure adds they were taking over the streets and the city were safe. Governor cuomo said it in his remarks last week probably best there is no better sign of what a great Police Department that we have that they were at the butt end of the anger of the protesters, and yet, they were protecting their fest First Amendment rights while they were taking their abuse at the same time. So thats the sort of stuff that we saw for many, many miles through the streets of new york, and i am sure that those Beat Officers told their buddies by text and social media and Everything Else you should hear what they are calling us and hear what they are saying. There is already upset with the mayor before these two officers deaths, but afterward ss, it took it to another level. And i want to tell you that the towers to tunnels program that offered to pay off the home loans for them and they needed 800,000 and they have 700,000 and so they can almost pay off their home loan ss. And hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised for these two individuals. For people who felt they were left out in the cold, and bereft and not loved in the city, and last weeks funeral, and this weeks funeral is showing a different picture. Thank you, miguel for the insights and as you were speaking former mayor Rudy Giuliani is there to pay his respects as well. I want to go back to sara ganim who is there in the crowd, and by way of the context and the background, we have been talking about the new york mayor bill de
blasio and the anger that he has apparently incited among these many of the cops the reason most recently is the reason that he taught his biracial son how to handle whether when he is approached by a Police Officer, because he would be approached differently, because of the color of his skin. And sara, that is what sparked the people turning their backs on him when he spoke last week and to a much lesser extent just this morning. Reporter that is right, dana and some say it goes back to his opposition of stop and frisk when he was running for mayor. And being here, and not just here for the wake yesterday and the funeral today, but going back a few weeks to the very public Memorial Site in brooklyn sorry, sara, i am sorry to
interrupt, but i want to tell you that the family and the widow and the father of wenjian liu just exited the funeral home. Keep going, i apologize. No, that is okay, dana. The days after were emotions very raw where the members of the community where where the members of the community had marched in the community had marched in the protests and they said this is not the time to criticize the mayor. There was a scene from the memorial and i witnessed it and it was so incredibly powerful where a woman came with a sign for officer ramos young son who said that your father had nothing wrong and she was having a hard time to tape it to the brick wall and officer came up to put it up on the wall and they put it up together and it was representative at the mood of the memorial, because it was interesting at the same time that some of of the police
unions were criticizing the mayor, and now a few weeks remove d removed from here at the funeral here at the wake, and i heard many officers some of them former nypd who work in other departments in other states who had come back for this say, look, it is a political issue, and also a very personal issue for many of the officers but this funeral is not the place for that. And that comes from this feeling that last week at officer ramos funeral, the pictures, the the photographs of the nypd turning their backs on the mayor, those were incredibly powerful pictures, and they changed the narrative of that day away from the funeral, and away from the celebration of his life and towards a more political issue, and people did not want to see that happen again today. And sara i have been in those situation, and it is physically difficult to move around but have you talked to any of the officers who defied Commissioner Bratton and turned their backs nonetheless . Well shgs, i have not, but dana, from where i am, it was not a whole lot of them around certainly mot the numb lyly not the numbers that we saw last week and in the crowd of about 450 where i can see and count from where i am standing maybe 50, or maybe even less, and then some of them were not nypd at all, and they were officers from other jurisdictions who wanted to make the point that they stand alongside the nypd on this issue, but it wasnt a majority and it was not half. It was a few. And their commissioner william bratton, when he made this plea for them not to do this today, he said look it is not a mandate and i wont discipline anybody over it, but i am asking that this day not become about this conversation that we are having right now, that it become that the narrative stay with officer liu and his family
and the nypd and like i mentioned before when i talked to officers who came in from out of town i did get the feeling that one of the reason ss that they wanted to come was because they wanted to show that solidarity and they wanted to show that they do feel the support of the nation and while this is a personal issue, a lot of them felt that it was an issue for today. Thank you, and that is the case for today. For the viewers who are tuning in we are looking at a cold and rainy day in new york city, but one that is not deterring the thousands is of Police Officers and dignitaries who have come from around the kuncountry to pay their respects to officer wenjian liu who lost his life and killed on Desemcember 20th along with his partner rafael ramos. There was an incredibly moving Funeral Service that included speeches not just from the
dignitaries such as the mayor as we have been discussing or the Police Commissioner, but hi father who spoke cantonese, and did not speak english, but you did not need to speak that language that to understand the sorrow and the pain of losing his not only son, but his only son and his only child, and then from his widow who he was married to for two months who called him her best friend her soulmate and somebody who really gave his all for not just her and his family but for the city of new york. I want to bring back tom fuentes, and as we look, we are as i mentioned, we heard the ceremony and seeing everybody leave. What we are waiting for right now is for the casket of wenjian liu to exit the funeral home and make its way down to what the reporters on the scene have been describing over a mile of people just lined up on the procession route. What are your thoughts as we areing at this now . Just how moving and solemn and the emotions of the officers are of everyone who is attending this. And you know if any good came from the last two weeks of the funeral s funerals, it is that when you have got to know officer ramos and the family better and officer liu and the family better you realize that they are not just people but great human beings and great people and the things they stood for, they are the best that our society has, and they are Police Officers. It makes me proud to have been a Police Officer and fbi agent and 36 years sworn in both positions, and makes me proud that i was one of them. Tom i have seen you on our air talking about a lot of really, really horrible things unfortunately over the last couple of years, but this is
personal for you, i can tell. This is so thank you, for doing this and you are bringing a sense of what it is like for those of us who again didnt have the honor to serve can understand. I want to go totoer errol louis and tom verni, and what are your thoughts . Well listening to e dedetek detective lius family and his wife speak, and like you said you dont have to speak the language to know the raw emotion they are channeling. It is unbelievable tragedy that many of us cant wrap our heads around what took place a couple of weeks ago. I know that as seen earlier on cnn there were a number of nypd officers that did turn their backs when the mayor was speaking, and then when the Police Commissioner came up to speak they turned back around, so it is important to note that the officers out of respect for Commissioner Bratton did turn around and for the entire funeral were faced forward. The only time that some of them did turn around is when the mayor was speaking. What do you make of that . Well, you have to remember that the police are not allowed to strike here in new york. There is a law that prevents them from striking. They are working pour or five years without a contract, and aside from the political rhetoric that mayor de blasio has come out not only as mayor, but as a candidate when he was running for mayor, and also his comments after the no true bill in Staten Island for the eric garner incident he has come out in a very antinypd specifically
set of rethetoric. And the officers, you cant not take that lightly, because this is somebody that you are working for, and aside from the fact ta they are working for years without a contract which in and upon itself is ridiculous, this is the only way that they have a chance as a group to have a silent protest to show their discomfort with the mayor and disagree with him. They are basically giving him a No Confidence Vote is what it is coming down to. They dont have any confidence in the mayor to prept them in a favorable light to represent them in a favorable light, and it is not just based on the perception but on the mayors actions in the last year or two. Ander roll and errol, you have covered the Police Department for many years, and new york city and does this strike you as more raw and
intense than in the past . Well, it is unusual, and not more raw. Anybody who was around in 1992 when 10,000 cops essentially rioted on the steps of city hall sort of stormed the building and caricatures and that was a time of very high crime. Crime is at a historic lows and as tom points out, there are underlying workplace issues that need to be resolved and not by Bill De Blasios making and he has been there for one year and fiveyear no contract is something that he inherited and trying to e negotiate, and for this department to be as upset as they are speaks to the difficulty of changing the culture of the very large, very respected and very Proud Organization and there is no question that the change is endorsed by the citizens of new york. They voted in Bill De Blasio for a reason. This is not some side plank or side print in his agenda,
because it is central for what he ran on, and he won in overwhelming votes to make change. And speaking of mayor de Blasio Blasio he did speak in the funeral in the last hour. I want to play a little bit of what he said. Lets listen. Detective wenjian liu was a brave man. He walked a path of courage. A path of sacrifice and a path of kindness. This is who he was. And he was taken from us much too soon. I want to go back to you, tom. As a former member of the nypd and as a detective, when you hear the mayor say that does that make you feel more feel better a about the mayor and the tension that we have seen thus far that he is trying hard
obviously to mend the fences . Well, it is something that i have not seen in quite a while. I honestly, you know, me, personally, and i think that i speak on behalf of a number of officers, and i cant speak on behalf of the entire department of course but i dont really put a lot of, you know credibility into the words that he came out with. I mean, he is really trying to back pedal as best he can. I think that he knows that on a lot of levels that he, you know spoke, i h think, out of turn and especially after the grand jury made their verdict out of Staten Island and you cant take back what you said and you can maybe offer the retraction and come back and say, listen maybe i spoke out of turn and maybe not saying that the entire nypd is a bunch of racist storm trooper, because that is what he was saying. What happened in Staten Island
had nothing to do with the race, and it was an arrest of a Career Criminal who chose to resist arrest and the officers used physical force to arrest him, and unfortunately result ed ined in that mans death, and that is in part of itself a tragedy. You wont find any officers glad that person died but it is certainly not the result of the officers looking for, and quite frankly, the officers that day were enforcing Quality Of Life law has the mayor and the city council are out there wanting them and demanding they enforce. Turning away from the politics for a moment and back to the solemnity of the moment. What we are seeing now, and waiting for casket of wenjian liu to come out, and while we do, i want to come back to remarkable and the brave eulogy that his widow, and the two were married for two months gave
during the funeral ceremony. Listen to this. I thank you for sharing this moment with me. With us. With our family. To reflect the goodness of his soul. And the wonderful man that he is. Many of you know as joe, especially at work. But to me he is my soulmate. Tom, back to you in new york. You know, while you are on the beat, im guessing as tom fuentes here in the d. C. Studio said to me a short while ago, your family is on pins and needles everyday even though things like this dont happen very often, and you are always in the line of fire and it is your duty and what you do . Yeah, i had a full head of
hair when i started the Police Department and for those who have seen me it has taken its toll and i did 22 years in the nypd, and i was a beat cop, and Community Policing and so the concept of the communeity policing that some people have talked about and maybe trying to e restore here in new york i think it is a fantastic way of policing neighborhoods. It absolutely is. And when it is done correctly, and the nypd unfortunately have lost 7,000 or 8,000 Police Officers since the time of 9 11 and so the physical bodies that you need to conduct that, it is going to be taking some Fancy Footwork to Reassignment Personnel to do that the, but that would be a great way to do that to reconnect with the communities in the city. But either way, whether you are doing the Community Policing or the Narcotics Tails or Chase Canning after gangsters, any time you are walking around, you are a walking target. So until you finish the stint
that you are slated to do whether it is 20 or 25 years in the Police Department and until you get out and retire do the families breathe a sigh of relief that you are finished and do your duty. I can imagine. Miguel marquez, back to you at the scene. We are looking at the two flags from the color guard, and the ceremonial and now they are going up so perhaps we are going to be seeing the the casket coming out soon. But miguel, it is cold can and rainy and still packed with people there. They are not going anywhere, and this is a solid blue mass that want toss to show the support. The rain has been going on, and it has stopped now shgs, and the trumpeters have come out so we expect taps will be played soon. There were a number of things that we learned in the service. The the mayor gave two examples. Clear ly clearly he spent a lot of time with the liu family in the last couple of weeks. Clearly a man who loved to fish and when he got a big fish he loved to share it with with the family. And two was the call he went on and there was a call of a man who had fallen and he spoke chinese and when they needed help he would be called in and the man was on the floor and he didnt want to get up or move and liu spent hours with this man and turned out that it was a guy who was elderly and just wanted some company, and liu was more than happy to play along and help this guy up, and those tiny things. And this is a guy who studied accounting but he wanted to become a cop. And he did. Bill brotton, the Police Commissioner spoke about being a cop. He came to the profession late, but the pool was just as strong as someone like Brill Bratton who joined very, very young. Perhaps the most telling sign of this family and the remarkable life was his cousin who said
that we didnt call him wenjian but we called him joe. This is a family that arrived here 20 years ago from china and has become fully American Family as we wait for the only son of this family wenjian liu to make his way out of the funeral home here in brooklyn. Dana. Absolutely heartbreaking to watch and think about. And while we are weight, werare waiting, we want to go to another portion of the funeral home and hear from the new york Police Commissioner bill bratton and hear what he had to say. Officer liu believed in the possibility of making a safer world. All cops do. It is why we do what we do. And it is why we run towards danger when others run away. We believe in the possibility of Keeping Disorder controlled. We believe in the possibility of a city free from fear. Pretty emotional from him, and at times in watching his speech even somebody who has seen a lot in his many decades on the Police Forces across the country look like it was hard for him to sort of keep it together understandably given the gravity of the moment and the speech that he had to give for the loss of his Rank And File. We are looking at the color guard and the ceremonial moment when wenjian lius casket comes out of the funeral home to begin a procession in what the re reporters on the scene there have described as remarkable a mile long the sea of people and
not just Police Officers around the country, but the everyday average new york citizens out there, and sara is out there with the people. Sa sara, as they are ready for the moment for the processional and what are you hear prg the people hearing from the people on the street there . Reporter dana i am here with a group of toronto officers who have collected badges from a group of the people here who have handed them out the the members of the community and not souvenirs, but handing them out as a remembrance of the day, a it was a really good moment. It was a great moment to see the officers first of all from so far away and not even part of this country and the United States interacting with the members of the community who came here from far away places who are here to just pay their
respects and as they wait along the Procession Line, they are exchange, and the worlds are colliding. It was a sweet moment. Mostly you know officers are standing out here. And it is Driz Canzling on and off, and they are waiting along a packed processional line, and they are waiting to pay their respects. Off officers are here from all across the country, and more than 1,100 came in on jetblue for free, but i would venture to say that i would take the guess to say that there are more than 1,100 officers here from out of town. I have seen so many with my own eyes from departments across the country, and not just the officers are here dana and something that i have noticed is that i have seen patrol cars from as far away as ohio. I saw a group of sheriffs deputies on motorcycle who clearly came here from cincinnati out of state, and that is showing that they drove
all of this way on the motorcycles to be here today. I have seen the patrol cars from other states as well not as far away as ohio, but there were a group of Motorcycle Officers from new jersey today traveling in a group. So we have seen a lot of nuggets that sew that this is really a community event, and when i Say Community i mean not just new york but community of support and community of within new york as well but a lot of moments today that are indicative of why people want to be here. The events in new york in the last couple of weeks, that is part of it. There is a feeling that they need to come here to show support because of the recent events here. That is clear to me. A couple of the officers here who talked to me from out of state and had been members of the nypd prior to leaving the
state told me that they wanted to make it clear that nypd is very diverse, and very diverse and large department. They didnt buy into this idea that there is you know widespread racism. They wanted to come to show and stand alongside their follow officers officers, and show their support because of that reason, and i have to say it is something that is very clear as we stand outside here today. Dana, finally, i want to say that it does appear that things are going to be moving along here shortly. As you look down the sea of blue i want to make it clear that this is a very, very long Procession Line because there is nearly a mile worth of Police Officers standing here filling up more than half of the street so that they can be here and witness officer wenjian lius final drive to the final resting place. They are waiting here to pay their final respect ss. Dana . And is sara talked about the solidarity as they say, and they all bleed blue. That is very clear in watching these pictures and these images. Solidarity is not just about the local police from new york and around the country, but the federal Law Enforcement. James coalmymey is the drekirector of the fbi, and he spoke. I was not lucky enough to know detective liu. But i have listened to other people talk about how deeply he cared about being a Police Officer. And former fbi officer, tom fuentes, why so important for
the director of the fbi to be there to speak . Well to let people know that it is an international issue, and he represents the federal Law Enforcement, and it is more than the thin blue line, because all of the International Partners stand together the as well. The fbi is a conduit the rest of the world through the legal at ta attache program, and they can get assistance from each other, and it is a worldwide fraternity and not just within the ud or within the United States or new york. And errol louis, as you look at the pictures the perception of outside of new york city is a rough and tumble place, but when push comes to shove, the new yorkers get together and they hold hands and really there for each other. I noeknow a lot of the people that we are seeing in these pictures are cops from out of the city but errol, as somebody who has covered new york city, and been a resident of new york city for a long time im guessing that is probably not a surprise to you . Oh no not at all. The thin blue line is pretty thick and long as you can see. I mean, i should mention that my dad is a retired nypd inspector, and my older sister is a retired detective. There are lots and lots of people who have lots and lots of Close Relationships to the cops. New yorkers are extremely proud of the nypd and it is an Important Institution in the town. One thing that is important, dana, the protesters who were doing a lot of the Black Lives Matter one of the slogans and organizing all over the country, and they inspired sort of a not quite backlash but a parallel movement, and there were lots of people who have been out there doing their own marches in
surprising number of jurisdictions all over to the country, and from massachusetts to utah, to seattle and everywhere in bewean, these sort of spontaneous citizen rallies in sup role for policing. And one of the central Democratic Institutions in our country. And as you said your father was or is on the police force, and what is your opinion in
regard to the National Racial tensions . Well, i called up my dad, and i call him up anyway but i asked him about some of the events and what he thought, and he said that he was surprised that the cops had turned the backs and so forth and he read that as them being ma nup lated by the Union Relationship in a way that would not have happened in the day. It is fine to be angry with the Political Leadership and fine to do something about it but you dont do it when you are in uniform, and not because it is the thing to do. These things tend to work themselves out, and his perspective which is valuable is that it ebbs and flows, and the cops get upset about one thing or another, and whether it is creation of the civilian Complaint Review board which is a Hot Button Issue a generation ago or appointment of the new Inspector General which is a recent fight and court fight or the stop and frisk, and now body cameras and other procedural
questions, and it is something that plays out in the public, but it is not supposed to divide the city. As i mentioned here in new york and you have it right up there on the screen there is not so fundamental of a breach that the whole town is going to fall apart. It is the kind of dispute that comes up every so often do we need to tweak it a little bit. My friend tom mentioned eric garner as a Career Criminal and they would say, he is a guy selling loose cigarettes and trying to scratch outt a living on the wrong side of the law, but you give that guy a ticket a warning. You dont swarm him with six cops and end up killing him, and these are the indkind of finetuning questions that need to go on at the the community level. That is where this gets solved andt not so much the politicians. No question, err oshgtsol and as
with we await the casket coming out of the funeral home, i want to get back to the Human Element here as we are seeing a young man slain in the line of duty. And i want to go to what his cousin officer lius cousin said about him speaking at his funeral earlier today. He was the most caring and thoughtful cousin that anyone could have. He would go out of his way to make sure that we were always happy and taken care of. He brought pride and honor to our family. He was a role model for many. Myself included. And will continue to be. Oh. That is just incredible and poignant. Miguel marquez is standing outside of the funeral home and he watched the entire funeral, and you are watching the the scene right now, deskribcribe it. Oh, it is always tough to take take, the drum corps has just come up from a side street. They have specialized vehicle that they have filled with the flowers from Inside Of The Funeral Home with a badge of the city of new york Police Department and the Drum Corps May be the most chilling of everything that will happen today as they march down the street, and the steady beat and the steady dirge as they pass the line of blue. Several members from Inside Of The Funeral Home have come out, and we expect that things have expected to get going here fair fairly soon. It is very, very difficult to watch. Impressive in the mile or so that i can see, all blue