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NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's police commissioner concedes that Mayor Bill de Blasio has lost the confidence of some of the city's police officers.
But a relative of one of the two officers killed in an ambush over the weekend says the family would welcome a visit from the mayor. He visited both officers' families at the hospital Saturday but did not see them yesterday.
Some police officers turned their backs on the mayor on Saturday as he walked through the hospital where the slain officers were taken. Commissioner William Bratton told NBC's "Today" show that he didn't think that was appropriate conduct by the officers.
Their union president recently suggested officers sign a petition telling the mayor not to attend their funerals if they died on duty. Patrick Lynch had said officers felt they were "thrown under the bus" by de Blasio after a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict a white officer in the death of Eric Garner, who was black.
De Blasio had spoken then about teaching his own teen-age son, who is half-black, to be careful around police.
Bratton is suggesting that recent pension changes and ongoing contract negotiations also had contributed to the uneasy atmosphere.
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153-a-05-(Commissioner Bill Bratton, New York Police Department, in interview)-"we'll move forward"-New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says there's room to learn and grow from Saturday's deadly ambush of two NYPD officers. COURTESY: NBC's "Today" ((mandatory on-air credit)) (22 Dec 2014)
<<CUT *153 (12/22/14)££ 00:05 "we'll move forward"
151-a-09-(Commissioner Bill Bratton, New York Police Department, in interview)-"of these demonstrations"-New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says outrage over the racially charged police-involved deaths of Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin influenced the man who killed two NYPD officers over the weekend. COURTESY: NBC's "Today" ((mandatory on-air credit)) (22 Dec 2014)
<<CUT *151 (12/22/14)££ 00:09 "of these demonstrations"
APPHOTO NYSW104: New York City police officers gather near a makeshift memorial near the site where fellow officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were murdered in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Monday, Dec. 22, 2014. Police say Ismaaiyl Brinsley ambushed the two officers in their patrol car in broad daylight Saturday, fatally shooting them before killing himself inside a subway station. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (22 Dec 2014)
<<APPHOTO NYSW104 (12/22/14)££
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