Thousands Prepare for NYPD Officer Wenjian Liu’s Wake: ‘A hero’s funeral is about grieving, not grievance’

As thousands of mourners prepare to attend the wake and funeral of a second New York City police officer killed in an ambush shooting, police Commissioner William Bratton is urging the rank-and-file to refrain from making political statements.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton walks over to speak to the media near where two U.S. Marshals and one New York Police Department (NYPD) detective were shot on July 28, 2014, in the West Village of Manhattan, NYC. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

NEW YORK—As thousands of mourners prepare to attend the wake and funeral of a second New York City police officer killed in an ambush shooting, police Commissioner William Bratton is urging the rank-and-file to refrain from making political statements.

“A hero’s funeral is about grieving, not grievance,” Bratton says in a memo to be read to all commands at roll calls on Saturday, the day Officer Wenjian Liu will be remembered during a wake. “I issue no mandates, and I make no threats of discipline, but I remind you that when you don the uniform of this department, you are bound by the tradition, honor and decency that go with it.”

Bratton’s comments referred to hundreds of officers who turned their backs to giant TV monitors displaying the remarks of Mayor Bill de Blasio a week ago at the funeral for the other slain officer, Rafael Ramos. That gesture mimicked one made by police union officials outside a hospital two weeks ago when the officers were killed.

"I remind you that when you don the uniform of this department, you are bound by the tradition, honor and decency that go with it."

— William Bratton, NYPD commissioner