Fifth Avenue was eerily quiet Wednesday morning, the second of February, except for the somber, deliberate cadence of drums for the funeral procession of Detective Wilbert D. Mora. White-gloved hands threw up salutes as the body of the slain officer went by. As is traditional for officers killed in the line of duty, he had just been promoted from Police Officer to Detective First Class by NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell at his funeral mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Detective Mora is part of a growing cadre of Hispanic officers. He was born in the Dominican Republic and immigrated with his family to Washington Heights, Manhattan when he was about 7 years old.
Over the last five weeks, six officers have been shot, a lingering ugliness of the policing policies of the Woke politicians who have let chaos and felons rampage through the city. Commissioner Sewell told the funeral audience, “This execution devastates a family, rocks the soul of a department, touches the heart of a nation, and tests the faith of this city,”
Officers Jason Rivera, Sumit Sulan, and Mora were trying to calm a family conflict in East Harlem. They did not realize that an unstable former felon was waiting for them in the back of the apartment. Rivera and Mora were shot. Rookie cop Sulan displayed uncommon coolness in shooting the murderer as he himself was wounded.
Rivera’s funeral mass took place last Friday, January 28th. Adams’ powerful oration and the widow Dominique Luzuriaga Rivera’s upbraiding of the Woke policing policies seemed to mark a pivot of the city from decline and despair toward a hopeful rebuilding. The officer’s widow also consoled her Instagram followers, “To be absent from the body, is to be present with the lord.”
However, there were several nasty incidents of Woke callousness. One actress passed around a tweet that called the police honorary guard a demonstration of fascism. A city council member’s remarks seemed to show more concern for the murderer than the slain Rivera. A New York City public school teacher seemed to imply that the mourning police should be met with violence. Some minimized the police deaths as sad family matters while dismissing the mayor’s and the police commissioner’s call for prayer as irrelevant to the need for anti-gun laws, more social workers, and fewer police.
Most religious congregations responded with prayers for the officers and their families, balanced by calls for good policing in the future. However, a few congregations sullenly were silent, resenting the display of support for the slain policemen as a political plot against the progressives. Some were just too scared to rock the boat in the choppy waters of the culture wars. Some felt it was better to be silent than to honor fallen protectors of the city.
Mayor Eric Adams told the audience at Mora’s funeral that he had visited Officer Sulan and his family in Queens, and the officer told Adams that he was going to put his uniform back on and help him address gun violence.
“We will win this fight,” the mayor said. “We will win it together.” The commissioner and mayor asked for the citizens of New York City to pray for them, the police, and their reform of the current policing policies.
