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With help from Woods and Rupert Murdoch's New York Post and Fox News Channel, where Giuliani blamed the Mayor for "bringing [police protests] on himself," the NYPD's war on de Blasio became a flashpoint for the national partisan battle. The stage was set for an epic rebuke of de Blasio.
Nearly 700 cops from around the country and Canada descended on New York City for the December 27 funeral of the murdered officer Rafael Ramos, taking advantage of an offer from Jet Blue of free flights to the memorial. Among those represented at the ceremony were members of the Albuquerque Police Department, a scandal-stained force with the highest rate of shootings of unarmed civilians in the country.
As soon as de Blasio appeared on a large screen monitor positioned outside the church where the funeral took place, cops who may never have heard the mayor's name responded to the cue to turn their backs. "100% including Volunteer FD guys from Long Island and Cops from everywhere from Canadian Mounties to San Diego and San Francisco, and everywhere in between [turned their backs]," recalled Thee Rant member Thisroundsonme. "Even civilians in the rear behind the detail turned their backs as word spread as to what was going on."
Another cop put the protest in perspective: "This was a show of solidarity for the Police nationwide. Cops everywhere are under attack by the public they protect, and the politicians who should be supporting their Police are derelict in their duties... And this is what you get."
Officer Liu's funeral on January 3 will present police with one more opportunity to admonish de Blasio. Then Operation All Out begins, with Republican operatives hoping to ride out of the political wilderness on the rising tide of cop rage. In an email to a supporter, Queens Village Republican Club president Joe Concannon referred to the planned wave of protests as "our plan to keep it in the news for the first half of 2015."
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