Two heroic policemen were fatally wounded while responding to a domestic disturbance call last Friday in New York City.
As the officers rushed into an apartment building’s cramped hallway, a thug called Lashawn McNeil opened fire on Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera without warning. The young men were rushed to a hospital, where 22-year-old Rivera was pronounced dead. Mora, 27, and a four-year veteran of the force, died Tuesday from his wounds. The horrific shooting was the first time two New York police officers had been killed in the line of duty since 2014.
While McNeil used a stolen weapon for cold-blooded murder, Rivera hailed from an immigrant family in a tough part of New York. He overcame obstacles to become a police officer in 2020. Mora remained on life support for four days in order to donate his organs as a final service act.
“The grief in this Department is incalculable,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell wrote in an email.
“We will stand, salute and shed tears, yet manage to smile as we remember him during the extremely difficult days ahead.”
Today we stood shoulder to shoulder, & once again lined the streets, as we escorted #NYPD Police Officer Wilbert Mora from NYU Langone Hospital to the funeral home in the Bronx
We'd like to thank the public, & all our partnering agencies for their support during this tragic time pic.twitter.com/Btk0ob4qo1
— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) January 26, 2022
Rivera’s wife spoke to a large crowd gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City Friday for her husband’s funeral. They were high-school sweethearts but had only been married since October.
“The system continues to fail us. We are not safe anymore,” she said. “I know you were tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new DA. I hope he’s watching you speak through me right now.”
Five officers have already been shot in America’s largest city this year. Only a couple days have gone by in 2022 without a police officer shot somewhere in the United States. Six were shot within 48 hours this week.
As America weeps, progressive leaders play partisan politics.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat thrust into leadership when embattled Andrew Cuomo resigned last year, remained tone deaf, spouting liberal claptrap that the solution to violence is to “fight the scourge of illegal guns on our streets.” (This is the same woman who recently declared racism a “public health crisis.”)
That’s delusional and insulting. Anyone with an IQ over 75 knows noxious left-wing prosecutors and misguided bail reform laws contribute to a shooting surge, as more criminals are released back onto the streets.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he’ll reinstate the successful plainclothes police unit, disbanded in 2020 under his rogue predecessor due to pressure from anti-police activists. The new mayor is a former police captain, and must allow the men and women in blue to crack down on criminal elements.
But if and when Antifa and BLM hooligans start burning down cities again, don’t stand back; throw arsonists and looters in police cruisers and put them behind bars.
The public agrees, even in the most liberal locales.
Defund the Police and Black Lives Matter, Inc. were soundly rejected a few months ago by Minneapolis voters, as even the state’s far left attorney general admitted the offensive slogan was misguided. The same occurred when anti-police radicals sought high office in Buffalo, Seattle, and elsewhere last fall.
With five homicides in 26 days — and shootings seemingly daily — St. Paul, however, is sadly on pace to surpass its record 38 murders set last year.
We clearly have harrowing challenges; yet safe in their elite echo chambers, most corporate media mock the serious concerns of most Americans.
That’s also a tragedy.
A.J. Kaufman
A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.
