Chunk of Boro Park to be Closed for NYPD Funeral

A chunk of western Boro Park will be closed to traffic on Sunday for the funeral of the New York City police officer executed last weekend, a funeral that local officials and chessed groups are urging the Jewish community to attend.

The NYPD on Wednesday sent out a notice to yeshivos in the area that all streets from Fort Hamilton Parkway to 18th Avenue and from 61st Street to 69th Street will be closed from Sunday morning until 3:00 p.m. This is due to Officer Wenjian Liu’s funeral in Sunset Park on 13th Avenue and 65th Street.

According to a press release from Assemblyman Dov Hikind, the area of 65th Street and 14th Avenue was designated by Owen J. Monaghan, the NYPD Chief of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, for the Orthodox community. The procession will pass by this area as it proceeds down 65th Street at 11:00 a.m.

Hikind, as well as state Sen. Simcha Felder, Councilman David Greenfield and Rockland Majority Leader Aron Wieder, called for the community to attend as a show of solidarity with the NYPD, which has been the object of recent protests. Among the groups who have said they will send representatives are Chaverim, Chesed, Chesed Shel Emes, Mekimi, Misaskim, Shomrim and Yad Efraim.

Liu and his partner, Rafael Ramos, were shot to death inside their patrol car on Dec. 20 by a gunman who had posted threats to attack police. Liu, 32, was married two months ago.

Vice President Joe Biden, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and other officials — plus 26,000 law enforcement officials from New York and around the country — turned out Saturday for Ramos’s funeral in Queens.

For Liu’s funeral, the White House announced Wednesday that FBI Director James Comey would represent the Obama administration.

A lingering question is whether officers are planning to turn their backs on de Blasio, as they did at Ramos’s funeral when the mayor got up to speak. The searing image reflected anger by rank-and-file cops over the mayor’s support for anti-police protests.

De Blasio met with the five police unions on Tuesday in an attempt to cool the rhetoric. However, according to a source who spoke to The Associated Press, the mayor did not apologize. The two sides pledged to meet again.

The Captains Endowment Association, a small police union, asked its members to abstain from disrespecting the mayor at Liu’s funeral.

On Wednesday, de Blasio announced plans to honor the officers by naming streets for them. “Detective Rafael Ramos Way” and “Detective Wenjian Liu Way” would be on the Brooklyn blocks where they lived. Liu lived on West 6th St., and Ramos on Ridgewood Ave. Both were posthumously promoted to the rank of detective. The council is expected to take it up this month.

“Our fallen heroes will never be forgotten,” de Blasio said. “Their memory lives on in their families, and in the NYPD family. And now it will live on in the streets of the communities these brave men lived in and protected.”

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the January 1st, 2015 edition of Hamodia.