occasion and it is impactful for weeks to come. there will be some emotional impact on all of the police officers whether they knew these fine gentlemen or not, there is an impact and emotional trauma they re experiencing. there s this clear kind of emotional trauma for the city for these officers even beyond the city. and yet there s also the context in which this is all happening. and i guess part of what i wanted to ask, you know so here is the first chinese american nypd officer killed in the line of duty. his partner was latino who was laid to rest very recently. and i wonder there s all of this racial discourse happening. but not much of it is about the fact that these gentlemen are also from communities of color. some of whom have also very tense relationships with urban police departments, both in new york and otherwise. i m wondering if this is even a reasonable time to be talking about that. it feels like we ought to be.
so many of us. some people witnessed that horrible day and were paralyzed. detective liu witnessed it and saw the possibility of service. a possibility of being part of something that would help others. for 170 years, immigrants to this city have found a home in the nypd like detective liu and detective ramos. to help others to have a life of significance. only the homelands have changed over time. first, it was the irish. then the italians. like pet racino who called himself joe, too. he was murdered by the maufio while on asanementuasipement in italy, and now our cops are from everywhere. the nypd looks a lot more like the city it serves than some people think. more than half of our members call new york city home, and live within its five boroughs just like detective liu and detective ramos.
take. as every day we face people who need help or people who are hurting. and we help them. we answer 4.5 radio runs a year in the city. nearly 400,000 arrests. and for good or ill, only a tiny handful make the news. in the millions literally millions of the rest go unnoticed. we do this because we took an oath. we do this because we believe in possibility. this is what we signed up for. the possibility of helping people. of helping others. the possibility of making a safer, purer city. to detective liu and detective ramos brothers and sisters in blue, the thousands of you who are lined up on the rainy streets outside, i am so proud of you. proud of you for making those possibilities a reality for so many in the city. even after 44 years, i am still
the suffering, the disturbed, the injured, and tried to bring them comfort. you have heard the mayor s story, the lift. reminded me so much of my time as a young police officer in boston. we called it the same thing, a lift job. and i can remember hearing the mayor talk about it about the different times we would go to help the elderly. oftentimes, who were really just lonely. they needed a reason to call us. they needed someone to talk with. and i can still remember myself and my partner, henry, going on the lift jobs and having some of the same experiences that detective liu had. detective liu is the police that we want. but it s also in this city and in this country the police that we have. and for that and for how he died but for how he lived and performed his duty, for that i am so honored as has already
so proud to be one of you. we re cops. we hold the line. the thin blue line. we don t quit when things are hard. because when aren t they? we took this job to prevent crime and disorder. over the past 2 year2 years, this department has reminded the world of how that s done and how it can be done. the mission has not changed. the belief in possibility has not changed. and the much larger part of this city or this country, a much larger part than you think is proud of you too. there are people who need us. we will not abandon them. to do so would be to dishonor the memories of detective liu and detective ramos. it would dishonor the others killed with their partners. a lot of those partners were as different as detective liu and ramos. different races, different