Attendees at a New York Police Department graduation ceremony could be heard booing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio when he was welcomed onstage on Monday.
De Blasio congratulated the cadets, telling them that the city thanked them for their service. Tensions between the police department and mayor have been especially high after two officers were gunned down in an ambush attack on Dec. 20 in Brooklyn.
During Saturday’s funeral for one of the fallen officers, members of the police force who were watching the service on a screen outside turned their backs on the mayor’s speech. The move was criticized by NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton as “very inappropriate.”
De Blasio has faced criticism for his handling of ongoing protests and tension between citizens and police following a grand jury’s decision not to press charges against a white police officer in the death of Eric Garner, a black Staten Island man who died after being put into a chokehold.
Watch the video from the graduation below, courtesy of The Huffington Post:
