Thousands Honor Slain NYPD Officer
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow, joining you live this afternoon from New York City. Our top story is this. Tears and solidarity, as some 25,000 police officers from across this nation and from Canada say good-bye to one of their own. One week ago today Officer Rafael Ramos and his partner Wenjian Liu were ambushed, assassinated, gunned down while sitting in their patrol car. Today their brothers in blue mourn at a funeral service for Officer Ramos.</s>JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT: I'm sure I speak for the whole nation, Maritza, when I say to you that our hearts ache for you. But I do hope you take some solace in the fact that over 25,000 -- 25,000 -- members of the same fraternity and sorority as your husband who stand and will stand with you the rest of your life. Your husband and his partner they were a part of New York's finest. And that's not an idle phrase. This is probably the finest police department in the world. The finest police department in the world.</s>GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: Nothing will ever defeat or divide our New York family. 9/11 couldn't do it. The lives of Officer Ramos and Liu prove the dedication to it. And with the name of Police Officer Ramos uttered, from now forth let us bow our heads, wish him and his family peace, and remember the principles he died for. For the Ramos family, I say we thank you, and we honor you.</s>MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: Our hearts are aching today, we feel it physically, we feel it deeply. New York City has lost a hero. I extend my condolences to another family, the family of the NYPD that is hurting so deeply right now.</s>BILL BRATTON, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: We'll heal as a city. We'll heal as a country. And wouldn't that be the ultimate -- the ultimate -- honor for Officers Ramos and Liu.</s>HARLOW: Pretty unbelievable. Joining me now to talk about it all, Tony Herbert, an NYPD advocate. Someone who has been an advocate -- A community advocate.</s>HARLOW: A community advocate and someone who's been speaking on behalf of the family of Officer Ramos. Also Michael Daly, special correspondent for the "Daily Beast" who was there this morning for that entire funeral. Michael, you wrote a very touching article about this man, about Officer Ramos, who he is. Tell us what stands out to you most about him.</s>MICHAEL DALY, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, THE DAILY BEAST: What stands out to me is that he grew up on Essex Street in east New York which is a tough street in the toughest neighborhood in the city of New York at a time when it was essentially a war zone. And he was -- his nickname was Potae, which derives from a Puerto Rican expression to mean you are a jar of goodness. This man was a jar of goodness. He was Potae and he was -- and that goodness shone on the people around him. That goodness led him to become a school safety officer. That goodness led him into the police department and he stayed with it, and he was even going to become a chaplain.</s>HARLOW: Yes. Well, he was supposed to graduate from that chaplain --</s>DALY: The day of his murder.</s>HARLOW: -- program the day that he was murdered.</s>DALY: I mean, I think he kind of is a chaplain now because I think he's a spiritual guide for everybody.</s>HARLOW: Yes. And --</s>DALY: You know, that is -- you look at those neighborhoods and you say look at that. There's potae in those neighborhoods. There's goodness in those neighborhoods. And I think that the Chaplain Potae stays with us.</s>HARLOW: And named by Bill Bratton, the commissioner of the NYPD, today as not only a detective first class.</s>DALY: First class, yes.</s>HARLOW: But also an honorary chaplain of his precinct, 84th Precinct in Brooklyn. To you, Tony, you have friends who are police officers. Is wearing that badge today different? Is it -- is it to some people making these officers a target?</s>TONY HERBERT, COMMUNITY ADVOCATE: You know, I -- not only do I have friends, I have family members that are in law enforcement for the most part particularly in the NYPD and it is a target because there are individuals who made it that way. You know, the whole police department are not bad. Just like we don't have a whole bunch of bad teachers and a whole bunch of bad priests.</s>HARLOW: The majority are great.</s>HERBERT: They're great. They're good officers. They want to do their job but they want to go home. The unfortunate part about it there are people in our community that commit crime. And they make it worse for everybody else. That other percentage of individuals were all black folks and not criminals, or not thugs or gangbangers or drug dealers. So we have to look at it from that same myriad. At the same time yes, there are -- officers out who were sworn to protect, and they have to do their job. We have to call people out when they're not doing their jobs.</s>HARLOW: So, Michael, these protests that we have seen, right, and we even saw really appalling on the streets of New York City some protesters, not the majority, but chanting what do we want, dead cops. What do we want now.</s>DALY: That was a very small number. Yes.</s>HARLOW: It was a very small number and it's not emblematic of the majority of the protesters. But let me show you these poll numbers and get your reaction because a recent CNN/ORC poll that we got showed this that -- how many officers are prejudiced against blacks. If you look at the nonwhite respondents, 42 percent said most. So there is a feeling shown through those numbers that some people feel, nonwhites, the number there feel like they're being targeted. What can we learn from those numbers? What can we do with those numbers?</s>DALY: I think Commissioner Bratton spoke today about the importance of being able to really see each other as individuals.</s>HARLOW: Yes, yes.</s>DALY: And that I think should be what we learn from this harm. That Officer Ramos was someone who could see the people in the community because he was of the community and the people could see him. The other question is, we have to have other officers see the other Ramoses in the community and for the community to see other Ramoses in the police department. And that I think is -- you know, that requires a lot of work and a lot of attention. But it all comes down I think to whether you're the protesters against the police, whether you're a police officer who has feelings about people of color. It all comes down to you have to judge people by who they are and not what they are on all sides. That's --</s>HARLOW: Tony, I want you to listen to some sound yesterday morning on our program. I interviewed the sheriff of Milwaukee. He's been in law enforcement for three decades. I want you to listen to something that he told me and then get your reaction on the other side.</s>SHERIFF DAVID CLARKE, MILWAUKEE COUNTY, WISCONSIN: When I hear these things that black lives matter, the only people that really believe that statement are American police officers who go into American ghettos every day to keep people from killing each other. If they really mattered that's where the outrage would be. That's what we'd see protests about. But when we see the black-on-black homicide that happens on a very frequent basis, we don't see protests. We don't see marches. We don't see demands for change. So this has been a one-way conversation that I'm just trying to present a counter narrative to balance this thing and so that we can have that discussion.</s>HARLOW: So then I asked him after, you know, can't we have both discussions? What do you think?</s>HERBERT: Well, what he said I've been saying all along, you know, as an advocate who's been out here against gang and gun violence in our community almost every single day where black lives are taken by black -- by other blacks all around. At the same time there has to be a collaborative of dialogue because I think that there's a disconnect in communicating what the issues are in our community. Keep in mind, the police department is a tool of the city of New York. And they're out there sent to do a job per se to protect. But at the same time they're tax collecting. They are actually assigning fines and things of that like, and these cops are put in that position.</s>HARLOW: That was interesting. You've made some comments about that especially recently.</s>HERBERT: And it's our reality. The bottom line is cops are put in a position or what have you to do the job that the city tells them to do. They do it. But yet they are the front liners where they are going to get that aggravation.</s>HARLOW: But --</s>HERBERT: And that craziness.</s>HARLOW: And important to remember, though, these two officers, Wenjian Liu and Officer Ramos, gunned down by a deranged person.</s>HERBERT: Black and -- I'm sorry, Latin and Asian.</s>HARLOW: A deranged person whose own mother was -- you know, said that he was mentally ill. So --</s>HERBERT: But a lot of these guys -- I'm sorry, Poppy, they're fueled by the agitation that takes place in our community. A lot of those protesters who've been out there didn't do that.</s>HARLOW: Understood. But I don't -- right. But we don't want to relate that person to the rest of the -- you know.</s>HERBERT: True, true.</s>HARLOW: Guys, I wish we had a lot more time. Before we go to break, I want to leave you with this image, a very powerful image from the funeral this morning, if we have it, of the -- of the flag being carried there to the wife of Officer Ramos. His two beautiful young sons who have lost their father standing by. We will never forget you. Thank you for your service.