NYC Police Officers Turn Their Backs on Mayor (Jan. 4)

Thousands of New York City police officers turn their backs when Mayor Bill de Blasio eulogizes Officer Wenjian Liu, the officer who was shot and killed along with his partner, Rafael Ramos, while on the job in Brooklyn last month. The back-turning at Liu's funeral comes despite New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton urging the officers not to do so. The death of the two officers only increases the tension of an already strained relationship between Mayor de Blasio and New York City police unions. Union leaders argue that de Blasio helped create the environment that allowed the two officers to be killed in December by supporting the protests of the deaths of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.