Asian American cops flock to Liu's funeral

Asian police officers from around the U.S. and Canada attended the funeral of NYPD officer Wenjian Liu,

WELL, my attempt at trying to be more positive in 2015 didn't last very long, did it?

After I posted the uplifting "We Are The World" video and Travis Ishikawa's inspirational faith, NYPD officer Wenjian Liu funeral was held with Buddhist monks leading the way.

Police officers - as they did at the funeral of officer Rafael Ramos - again used the funeral to express their displeasure at Mayor Bill Di Blasio by turning their backs to him when he spoke.

Both officers were attacked by a man who had a long police record and was obviously mentally troubled. Prior to ambushing the officers in their patrol car, he shot his girlfriend and after killing the officers, killed himself.

NBC had an Asian-American angle on the funeral of slain NYPD officer Wenjian Liu that didn't make it into a whole lot of newspapers.

Detective Ron Bongat, a Filipino immigrant who has worked as a police officer near Chicago for 15 years, told NBC News that the deaths of Liu and Ramos may help strengthen ties between police and the communities they serve.

"I hope there is a sense of community and support for each other," Bongat said. "Not just for officers, but for the community as a whole."

The New York Times used the funerals of Liu and Officer Ramos to point out the changing demographic of the NYPD.

It all goes to show that contrary to the mainstream stereotype of Asian American males, not all Asian-American men are nerds or brainiacs, computer geeks or doctors, restaurant workers or engineers. 

Many want to make a difference by becoming public servants such as police officers and fire fighters, soldiers and social workers.

I'm not sure about other parts of the country, but I'm surprised and disappointed that not one television station or mainstream newspaper in the San Francisco Bay Area, with its large Asian American audience, didn't pick up this facet of the story.

Police officer Wenjian Liu's widow (with portrait) and his family at the funeral held Sunday.

Slain Asian American cop was pursuing the American Dream

NYPD officer Rafael Ramos, left, and Wenjian Liu.

SLAIN POLICE officer Wenjian Liu was pursuing the American dream says his family when he and his partner Officer Rafael Ramos were killed by a mentally imbalanced man who ended up taking his own life. Before ambushing the NY police officers on Dec. 20, he had earlier shot his girlfriend.

Ramos' funeral was held last Saturday (Dec. 27) and was attended by over 23,000 police officers from across the country and Vice President Joe Biden.

Liu's funeral was finalized Sunday. It will be held next Sunday, 10 a.m., at the same funeral home where Ramos' funeral was held. It took longer to plan Liu's funeral because arrangements had to be made for relatives to fly in from China.

The 32-year-old Liu had been with the force for seven years and was married October, 2014. He was supposed to be off duty that day but volunteered for on duty after Ramos' regular partner couldn't report to work.

UPDATE: What was pathetic was the reaction to a news video of the Liu family at a news conference. Reaction was racist and called the family reaction phony. Just, so-o-o pathetic! Here's a thought-provoking piece by Joan Walsh on the epic white backlash.

According to a statement provided by the Liu family, Wenjian Liu came to the United States on Dec. 24, 1994, when he was 12 years old. The Liu's traveled thousands of miles "to seek the American dream from Canton, China" and in search of "a better life for the family."

NY Mayor Bill De Blasio has been roundly criticized by the NYPD rank and file for statements he made immediately after the grand jury decision on Eric Garner,  who was killed by a police officer using an illegal choke hold.

A Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict the officer and that sparked nationwide protests which came on the heels of a similar grand jury decision in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

De Blasio, who is married to an African-American woman and have bi-racial kids, said he had to advise his son how to act when interacting with police. NYPD officers took those statements as being anti-police and inferred that he encouraged anti-police action. There had already been tension between the mayor and the police prior to the Garner decision.

During Ramos' funeral last Saturday, thousands of police officers turned their back on the mayor as he spoke. The New York Times wrote an editorial blasting the police tactic of politicizing an event meant to be a solemn tribute to one of their own.

"That funeral was held to honor Officer Ramos, and to bring politics, to bring issues into that event, I think was very inappropriate and I do not support it," said Commissioner Bill Bratton on CBS' Face The Nation. "He is the mayor of New York. He was there representing the citizens of New York to express their remorse and their regret at that death."

Vice President Biden and his wife Jill visited Liu's widow and family after delivering and emotional eulogy during Ramos' funeral.

The officers' deaths had been linked to the Garner and Brown protests because of reports that the killer, who had a long police record, had been angered at the grand jury decisions sand anti-police statements on his Instagram account.

The families of both Brown and Garner condemned the shootings and condemned any violence - either against police or during the protests.

Police supporters have created the hashtag #NYPDLivesMatter to counter the #BlackLivesMatter. In actuality #AllLivesMatter. 

Garner, Brown, Ramos, Liu - and the killer, too -- are all the victims of fear and hate, victims of the uniforms they wear, or the color of their skin, victims of our country's polarization into red and blue, haves and have-nots or the us-vs-them mentality that divides us.

Perhaps, Police Commissioner Bratton said it best:
“The police, the people who are angry at the police, the people who support us but want us to be better, even a madman who assassinated two men because all he could see was two uniforms, even though they were so much more. We don’t see each other. If we can learn to see each other, to see that our cops are people like Officer Ramos and Officer Liu, to see that our communities are filled with people just like them, too. If we can learn to see each other, then when we see each other, we’ll heal. We’ll heal as a department. We’ll heal as a city. We’ll heal as a country.”

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