New York City police department commissioner Bill Bratton stood before a packed crowd at St James church in Seaford, New York, on Friday and held up a children’s book from 1956. The book had spurred his interest in policing at a young age, he said while eulogizing officer Brian Moore.
Moore was fatally shot last Saturday, while sitting in an unmarked police vehicle with another officer.
“We must always remember that whenever you see a policeman, he is your friend,” Bratton read from the book, as part of a speech that acknowledged the tense relationship between New York City police and the communities they are meant to protect.
A series of high-profile police killings of unarmed men in cities across the US, including in New York City, has intensified scrutiny of how such departments operate. Baltimore saw fierce demonstrations last week, after protesters took to the streets following the death of a 25-year-old man, Freddie Gray, in police custody. Six officers have been charged over the death.
“What is lost in the shouting and the rhetoric is the context of what we do,” Bratton said. “A handful of recent incidents, fewer than a dozen, have wrongfully come to define the hundreds of millions of interactions cops have every year.”
He said Moore, like most officers, was one of the good ones, known for his ability “to smell a gun” and get it off the street. Only 25, he was a member of the NYPD’s respected anti-crime unit, and was known for his commitment to what was a family profession.
His father, Raymond, is a retired NYPD sergeant. Moore’s uncles and cousins are also police officers.
Bratton became emotional when announcing that Moore had been posthumously promoted to detective – putting him in the same rank as officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, who were killed in Brooklyn in December. Their assailant had posted anti-police statements online and had a history of mental illness.
All three fallen officers were attacked in their cars. Moore was with Erik Jansen, 30, on Saturday, when they saw a man walking and adjusting something in his waistband. The two plainclothes officers pulled up alongside the man and asked him what he was carrying. Demetrius Blackwell, 35, then shot through the car. Jansen was not injured. Blackwell has been charged with murder.
Officers from across the US came to Long Island for the service in Seaford. People wearing badges from Orange County, California, and Palm Beach County, Florida, stood outside the church.
Moore was remembered as a Baltimore Orioles fan who would record videos of himself singing popular songs and send them to his friends. On Mondays, which he usually had off from work, he would visit his mother. And he loved his German shepherd, Smokey.
“Brian Moore represents the best of New York City,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “He was brave for sure, but his bravery was matched by his compassion.”
When de Blasio delivered his eulogy, the thousands of police officers outside the church remained facing the screen. At the funerals for Liu and Ramos, many officers turned their backs when the mayor spoke, in response to remarks he had made about teaching his biracial son to be careful around police.
The officers stood firm this time, as did community members who echoed the navy uniforms of the police with their own blue clothing, mourning black or NYPD T-shirts and baseball caps.
The service was projected on a screen, with dozens of people watching from their porches and the windows of nearby businesses. Thousands of officers lined several blocks around the church.
Please join us in taking a moment of silence to remember NYPD Police Officer Brian Moore pic.twitter.com/8uOB7Z9JFA
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 8, 2015
Susan Leddy, who works for a local police department as a civilian, stood outside the service with her daughter, granddaughter and a family friend. She did not know Moore, but wanted to pay her respects because he was from the community.
“It’s definitely a warm feeling, I’ve never seen the community come together like this,” she said.
Honoring Moore, the area around the church was covered with blue ribbons on homes, businesses and yards. Leddy said that when she went to buy her ribbon at a local craft store, everybody in the neighborhood was there.
“The line was long, and all we did was talk about this,” she said. “Nobody was angry, nobody was mad.”
Her daughter, Jamie Fuentes, said she thought it was important to bring her own daughter to the funeral.
“I was explaining that we’re honoring police officers, that they’re heroes,” she said.
