Bill de Blasio Moves to Name Streets After Murdered NYPD Officers

[LiberalElite]

Source: NY Observer

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today he will introduce legislation with Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to name streets in Brooklyn after two NYPD officers who were recently murdered.

The officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were shot and killed in their patrol car on December 20, setting off a new round of bitter conflict between City Hall and police unions.

“Our fallen heroes will never be forgotten. Their memory lives on in their families, and in the NYPD family,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. “And now it will live on in the streets of the communities these brave men lived in and protected. This is an expression of our pride in each of these men, and our sadness at their loss.”



Edited to add: I'm not criticizing deBlasio for this.

Read more: http://observer.com/2014/12/bill-de-blasio-moves-to-name-streets-after-murdered-nypd-officers/

[ellenrr]

1. hmm.. he didn't have a choice, did he... nt

[still_one]

2. Yes he had a choice. Look at john mccain voting no for establishing Martin Luther King Day

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. I like De Blasio but that's a rather unimaginative response.

I hope there's LESS where that came from.

No, I don't have any simple answers.

In the meantime, the maps will say "57th Place"... or whatever... and the signs will say "Ramos and Liu Blvd."

That's exactly what we need: more confused urban nomenclature.

I think of this whenever I imagine out-of-towners trying to find the Ed Koch/59th Street/Queensboro Bridge.

[LiberalElite]

6. It isn't confused urban nomenclature

everyone will still call it "57th place". It's an accepted symbolic gesture. It's been done before in NYC.

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. My point exactly.

"It's been done before in NYC."

And before and before and before.

How did naming the Throggs Neck (Bronx) JHS the "Piagentini and Jones School" ( after the 1971 victims of a political assassination) help in any way to bridge the city's racial/ethnic/economic/ institutional divides?

Again: Unimaginative.

And QUICK: What's the name of that bridge over the East River in midtown?

[LiberalElite]

12. It's in the upper end of midtown - the Edward I. Koch Bridge a/k/a

the Queensboro Bridge and - the 59th Street Bridge (who did a song about that?)

To me it's immaterial that they're naming two streets for the slain cops. They can do that and still act to solve the serious problems with police brutality and other issues. They can do both. To imply that it stops with a street naming is silly.

[99th_Monkey]

4. Brilliant move actually.

Let the NYPD assholes 'turn their backs' at the new streets ribbon cutting.

[DRoseDARs]

5. Is it a standard thing done after NYPD officers die, or is it pandering to the bullies?

eom

[LiberalElite]

8. P.O. Edward Byrne, killed on duty 1988 -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Byrne_%28police_officer%29

[DRoseDARs]

9. If that's the only example then no, not standard.

Quite a few NYPD officers have died in the line of duty.

http://www.odmp.org/search/browse/new-york

[NorthCarolina]

13. It's clearly pandering, and it will mean nothing I"ll bet.

The officers deaths are just a convenient avenue for the outrage being propagated against him, and more precisely, his family. The outrage will continue for as long as the conservatives can gain media attention from it.

[eggplant]

14. They died in the line of duty.

It seems like an easy tribute to make. Now, if they named the two intersecting streets where they were gunned down after them, that would be a bit tacky.

[Man from Pickens]

7. Let me propose the names

He can re-christen the streets at the corner where "Political Expediency Boulevard" meets "Pandering Alley".

[branford]

10. The street namings are a entirely cost-free means to reduce tensions in the city.

Last edited Wed Dec 31, 2014, 08:31 PM - Edit history (1)

You may call it political expediency, but deBlasio is in fact a politician, and the move is very good politics.

There was absolutely nothing controversial about the lives and actions of Officers Liu and Ramos, the gesture is not something uncommon in NYC, will be appreciated by the family, friends and supporters of the officers, including the NYPD, does not in any way diminish the mayor's support for police reforms, and will provide a mature and very public contrast to the inflammatory and divisive statements by the police unions.

If I had to choose between renaming streets for innocent murdered officers or continued city tensions and resultant decline of Mayor deBlasio's approval ratings, I'll choose the streets every time. The mayor is trying not to emulate the dismal political example set by our last liberal, one-term mayor, David Dinkins. I, for one, am glad that deBlasio is showing such political acumen. Let's not forget that the mistakes of Dinkins led to the election of Giuliani and twenty years (!!!) of conservative rule of NYC.

[eggplant]

15. Whatever happened to him, anyway?

(from http://theinfosphere.org/New_New_York)

[branford]

18. Heh.

Last I heard, Dinkins was promoting his book in which he bitterly complains that he was not treated fairly and was not in any responsible for anything bad or unpopular in NYC during his tenure as mayor. I heard him interviewed a couple time about the book, and he seems really angry and a little pathetic. You would never believe he was the mayor of America's largest city.

[True Blue Door]

16. Name a street after Garner then also.

See how the racist NYPD reacts to having the city memorialize one a police murder victim.

[branford]

19. Garner should not have been killed.

However, he was hardly unfamiliar with the criminal justice system and was not a "hero," at least as the term is understood by most of the public. Eric Garner unquestionably deserves justice, but any attempt to lionize him would most certainly be very controversial, and to many, actually be damning evidence of the claim that the mayor excuses criminality and is truly "anti-police."

It's not like the streets are not being named for Daniel Pantaleo, who will forever have a dark cloud over him for Garner's death, but rather for two entirely innocent and apparently commendable officers (who are both minorities, btw) who were executed for simply and honorably doing their jobs protecting the citizens of the city. There is no need for some "balancing" measure by the mayor, and any attempt would likely quickly eradicate any goodwill generated by the anticipated street renamings.

Eric Garner will ultimately be memorialized by reforms of the police department. If Mayor deBlasio's poll numbers do not rebound, however, that goal becomes ever increasingly difficult to achieve.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. It's not going to satisfy the haters.

[C Moon]

20. Wow. I think this is great.