The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, New York City’s largest police union, on Friday called on cops to keep Mayor Bill de Blasio away from police officers’ funerals.
The union published a notice on its website urging officers to keep de Blasio or City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito away, the New York Daily News reported on Friday.
“DON’T LET THEM INSULT YOUR SACRIFICE!” the notice reads.
Officers can download a form to request that de Blasio and Mark-Viverito not attend their funerals “in the event that you are killed in the line of duty.”
“Due to Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s consistent refusal to show police officers the support and respect they deserve, I believe that their attendance at the funeral of a fallen New York City police officer is an insult to that officer’s memory and sacrifice,” the form reads.
De Blasio spokesman Phil Walzak and Mark-Viverito spokesman Eric Koch criticized the PBA’s notice in a joint statement on Friday.
“This is deeply disappointing. Incendiary rhetoric like this serves only to divide the city, and New Yorkers reject these tactics,” the statement reads, according to CBS New York.
The PBA was angry with de Blasio’s remarks following the Eric Garner decision about how his son Dante has to be careful when interacting with the police.