Family, officers arrive for 2nd NYPD cop's funeral

Thousands of police officers are paying their respect to a New York Police Department officer shot to death along with his partner as mourners converge from around the US today for a second funeral that stands to test tensions between the city's mayor and police.
Buddhist monks will lead a Chinese ceremony for Officer Wenjian Liu, followed by a traditional police ceremony with eulogies led by a chaplain. Liu, 32, had served as a policeman for seven years and got married just two months before he was killed with his partner, Officer Rafael Ramos, on Dec 20.
As Liu's family arrived for his funeral, Police Commissioner William Bratton tweeted: "We will never forget his sacrifice."

A day earlier, mourners lined up for blocks on a cold, rainy day for Liu's wake.
"This is a really tragic story," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters following the wake, held just two days after the death of his own father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo.
"This is really pointless. It had nothing to do with them," he said of Liu and Ramos. "They did nothing wrong. ... It was pure and random hatred."

The shooter, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, killed himself shortly after the brazen daytime ambush on a Brooklyn street.
Investigators say Brinsley was an emotionally disturbed loner who had made references online to the killings this summer of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers, vowing to put "wings on pigs."

The deaths strained an already tense relationship between city's police unions and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who union leaders have said contributed to an environment that allowed the killings by supporting protests following the deaths of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
The head of the rank-and-file police union, which is negotiating a contract with the city, turned his back on the mayor at the hospital where the two officers were taken after they were shot.
The act was imitated by hundreds of officers who turned their backs toward a giant outdoor TV screen as de Blasio's remarks at Ramos' funeral were being broadcast.

Many people, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, have since pressed all parties to tone down the rhetoric.
And this weekend, Bratton sent a memo to all commands urging respect at Liu's funeral, declaring "a hero's funeral is about grieving, not grievance."
Yesterday, officers standing outside the Brooklyn funeral home where Liu's body was displayed, dressed in full uniform in an open casket, saluted as the mayor and commissioner entered.