Thoughts on Ramos Funeral Protest of de Blasio

I’m the first to say the officers at Ralph Ramos’ funeral had every right to turn their backs on de Blasio while he spoke at the service. They have the right to protest just as the rest of us do. That said, however, I hope anyone who supports the rights of those officers (who were in uniform) also supports the rights of NFL players (who were also in uniform) to show solidarity with the “Hands up don’t shoot” movement, or the rights of other protestors at other venues. These officers chose the funeral of one of their fallen comrades to make a statement- I don’t disagree with the method, as it was powerful. We didn’t call for disciplinary action against those officers, nor did we ask for an apology (nor should we!). Yet, the police union did both of those things when 5 Rams players took the field with their hands up. In the end, it’s all the same, and we’re all expressing our rights. We may not be able to agree on the issues at hand, but let’s all acknowledge that we’re all expressing our patriotism by exercising rights granted to us in the Constitution. In the end, we do it for the same reason: because All Lives Matter.