A new ‘blue tide’ once again bordered this Tuesday several blocks around St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. This time, to start the funeral acts of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer Wilbert Mora, the second police officer killed in Harlem along with his partner Jason Rivera, when they responded to a domestic violence call. Both were of Dominican origin.
The acts to say goodbye to Mora were a scene of pain, which New Yorkers already experienced in the surroundings of the same temple last week when Rivera was fired. Once again, hundreds gathered to offer their prayers for the relatives of the officer of 27 years, but also to offer their support to the Uniformada.
Among the crowd, Puerto Rican Margarita Vásquez, a resident of Manhattan, was praying on a street corner 50, a few meters away from where the remains of the officer already rested.
This mother of eight children assures that she knows exactly how to “find the heart” of Mora’s mother.
“I also lost my son two years ago. He served for years in the Navy. Returning from Afghanistan he fell ill. And he almost died in my arms. I know what that mother who is in there in front of this coffin is feeling. That’s why she came here. The Dominicans and we are brothers”, expressed the Puerto Rican sadly.
Margarita, with 28 years residing in the city of New York, stated that the death “of these two boys” should be a new sign that should stimulate support for the police who are the ones who protect citizens.
“That atmosphere of fear and crime was not seen for years in this city. And as a mother I just bet that no family has to live through this moment because of violence. Every death must be taken very seriously. Otherwise, the time will come when we are going to get used to this,” he said.
“I wanted to be the best police officer”
Exactly 11 days, Wilbert Mora was shot in an apartment in Harlem, on the street 135 West, along with his other Dominican partner, when they answered a call from 576 of a mother who reported that her son had aggressive behavior. Upon entering the property, both agents were greeted with a burst of shots, detonated by the African-American Lashawn McNeil, who was also killed in a counteroffensive by a third uniformed officer, according to the official version.
Officer Rivera, who was posthumously promoted to the rank of detective, died the same night as the shooting. Mora was shot in the head and the bullet lodged in his brain. He was taken off life support at a Manhattan hospital four days later. His heart, liver, pancreas and both kidneys were donated to five other people before he died.
The remains of this police officer who entered the NYPD in 2013 and worked tirelessly to be promoted to the position of sergeant, were also taken to the main altar of the historic New York cathedral to receive honors for being considered a “triple hero”.
Mora had obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of the City of New York (CUNY) the same year he joined the ranks of the largest police institution in the country. It transpired that in his short career he had had a total of 28 procedures and successful arrests in his fight against crime.
The remains death of the officer of Dominican origin was received with honors in the iconic Manhattan church.A group of his colleagues from the police station 32 of Harlem, where he served , they loaded the coffin at : 43 minutes of this Tuesday, wrapped in the official flag of the police force.
“He was a gentle giant with a strong physique and a warm heart lido. He was always happy. I wanted to be the best policeman,” a Dominican colleague described him in a few words.
Minutes later, the officer’s bereaved family entered the wake to participate in a private ceremony, before the doors were closed. open to the public.
Humanitarian visas for his uncles
According to information shared by the Dominican newspaper Diario Libre , the NYPD applied for humanitarian visas at the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic for the uncles of the policeman of Quisqueyan origin, to make it easier for them to attend the funeral ceremonies scheduled for this week.
“The application was processed request through the Department of State in Washington DC, explaining the reason and the need for the officer’s uncles to travel to New York, to be present at the wake and other acts of homage to his nephew”, specified the island newspaper.
It was also detailed that Juan José and Yudelka Altagracia Jiminián traveled last Friday 24 from January to the country to help care for the devastated parents of the slain police officer, who “due to pain and trauma need to be helped.”
“It is a pain for Hispanics”
While inside the temple the ceremonial and religious honors were performed, on the outskirts, hundreds of residents of New York kept coming to join the pain of this Dominican immigrant family and those in uniform.
In that group, was the Puerto Rican Liz Castro, who made a long line in the middle of freezing temperatures. There, she was willing to wait patiently along with dozens of officials to enter the church, emphasizing that she did not know the relatives, but she came from Brooklyn only for a “question of solidarity as a mother”.
“I don’t know this family. But this murder is also a pain for all Hispanics who have raised our families here. I came to pray. To show my solidarity. This is a horrible fact that should move us to support our police officers”, he stressed.
Also, the Colombian Pedro Díaz took the afternoon to attend this wake.
“I also came last week to honor the other young police officer. Today I come again because as residents here. As immigrants who come from countries with high crime. We cannot allow the city to pass into the hands of criminals”, he said.
Colombian Pedro Díaz also attended Rivera’s funeral last week . (Photo: F. Martínez)NYC is experiencing a challenge against the underworld
The discharge of these two uniformed officers of Hispanic origin, who died in the performance of their duties in the city of New York, added fuel to the already inflaming debate on how to deal with rising crime on the streets.
New Mayor Eric Adams, four weeks in office, has made it clear that His formula will be to reinforce the police presence with special brigades in the most violent neighborhoods and promote changes in the reform of the Bail Law, which prevents judges from setting bail for almost all minor crimes, as a requirement to obtain freedom from prison. a detainee, while his guilt or innocence is determined.
But already in the city, legislators who have supported reforms in criminal justice and civil organizations have “bared their teeth”, in r I reject possible changes in the spirit of this law. Which anticipates a “train wreck” in the coming months.
Beyond the extremes, in the streets some point out that it is time to find an intermediate point.
“We must not deny that in the past the police committed many abuses, but we must not fail to recognize that the city is currently experiencing a very bitter moment due to violence. Because authority was taken away from officials. It seems to me that a balance must be found”, argued the Dominican journalist César Romero, who attended the funerals of his compatriots in downtown Manhattan.
In this sense, Benjamín García, board member of the Guardian Angels of New York, asserted that the attack in which these uniformed men died should remind us that the streets belong to “good people, workers, the majority, not criminals, to whom in recent years some laws they have given oxygen”.
The wake of Mora’s officer was scheduled between 1 pm and 8 pm this Tuesday at the Cathedral of San Patricio. The funeral will be held this Wednesday at am in the same place. After the service, a motorcade will take the casket to Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens, where he will be laid to rest.
24% of uniformed personnel are of Hispanic origin
The murder of Mora and Rivera, in the same operation, has also brought to the fore the growing presence of uniformed Hispanic origin who are part of the police force considered the most powerful in the country and on the list of the first in the world: More than 30% of the almost 35,000 uniformed NYPD officers are Latino.
A series of data shared by The New York Times (TNYT) confirm that the ranks of Latino officers “have grown in recent years along with Asian officers, while the proportion of African-American officers has stalled”.
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The New York media describes that officers Rivera and Mora were part of a growing contingency of Dominican officers who grew up in neighborhoods of the Greater apple during apog eo of stop and frisk policies.
TNYT highlighted that both policemen, who were just starting their careers, were teenagers when a federal ruling in 1536 stated that the tactics known as ‘Stop and Frisk’, “violated the civil rights of the majority of the city’s black and Hispanic youth, who were stopped and frisked millions of times in search of weapons and drugs.”
Since then, the number of stops has increased collapsed, but civil organizations assure that in the same way a 43% of the reviews target young people from ethnic minorities in the city.
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