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Protest leaders seek to distance budding movement from New York police killings

 
Published Dec. 22, 2014

The ambush killing of two New York police officers on Saturday has forced a burgeoning protest movement over police use of lethal force to address accusations that it bears some responsibility for violence carried out in the name of that cause.

Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were fatally shot Saturday as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn.

Police officials in New York and elsewhere were quick to lay at least partial blame for the officers' killings on ongoing protests of several high-profile fatal encounters between police and unarmed black men his year. The suspect in Saturday's shooting, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, referred to two of those men in his online rants.

"Let's face it: There's been, not just in New York but throughout the country, a very strong anti-police, anti-criminal-justice-system, anti-societal initiatives under way," New York police Commissioner William Bratton said during a news conference Sunday. "One of the unfortunate aspects sometimes is some people get caught up in these and go in directions they should not."

The officers' deaths were condemned by local, state and national officials, the families of the victims of police killings this year and many civil rights leaders and groups that have been vocal in the ongoing "Black Lives Matter" protests.

In statements, social media postings and interviews, various protest leaders struck a unified message when addressing the New York shootings. They emphasized that the killings were tragic and pointed to their repeated calls advocating nonviolence.