N.Y. Protest Leaders Spurn Calls to Suspend Demos

Washington Informer December 23, 2014

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From left, Pastor Michael Durso, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City first lady Chirlane McCray visit a makeshift memorial Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014, near the site where New York Police Department officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were shot and killed in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Police say Ismaaiyl Brinsley ambushed the two officers in their patrol car in broad daylight Saturday, fatally shooting them before killing himself inside a subway station. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

NEW YORK (CBS News) — Leaders of protests against police tactics in dealing with African-Americans say they plan to defy calls from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio for a pause in demonstrations until the two officers ambushed and slain Saturday are laid to rest.

De Blasio’s calls came amid a widening rift with those in a grieving police force who accuse him of creating a climate of mistrust that contributed to the killings of the two officers.

De Blasio called Monday for a halt of political statements until after the funerals of the slain officers, an appeal to both sides in a roiling dispute centered on the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers.

“We are in a very difficult moment. Our focus has to be on these families,” de Blasio said at police headquarters, referring to the families of the two slain police officers. “I think it’s a time for everyone to put aside political debates, put aside protests, put aside all of the things that we will talk about in all due time.”