A Sea of Tears
The entire city grieves whenever we lose a cop or firemen. When I say city I mean Long Island and Westchester as well as so many of our bravest and finest reside in those bucolic suburbs.
Last week’s heinous assassination of two New York City Police Officers hit the city harder than most losses, probably because it was an assassination, an uncommon crime in the city of Gotham or anywhere in this great nation. Steve Fontana was a kid I grew up with in Flushing Queens, a few houses down. He is NYPD and part of the Honor Guard who held the coffin as it moved through a sea of blue into the Glendale church last week. “As an assignation, it was an attack on society, it will take a long time for our force to recover from it,” said Fontana.
Fontana, his brother and the entire city mourned. It was so devastating that the entire nation joined us in our morning. “I met cops from Alaska, California, Canadian Mounties, they came from everywhere,” explained Fontana.
Like most Irish Catholic families I bleed blue, I have family on the job (FDNY and NYPD). As a matter of fact, my grandfather Mike Ledden was the top cop in New York City in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Back then the top cop was not the Police Commissioner, it was the Deputy Inspector. So he was Deputy Inspector Michael Ledden.
We watched in horror of the broadcast and print coverage, there was no crime and two of New York’s finest were shot execution style on a quiet city street in Brooklyn. The shock equaled the blame which was being through around to the Mayor of New York and some even said the President of the United States of America. This is another component of the violent acts that made it different from all others. The funerals themselves galvanized every major station, including national stations. Even Al Jazeera covered the funerals. Yes, Al Jazeera, the Saudi paper that speaks to the Muslim world.
In addition, the mega airline Jet Blue offered two free flights for members of law enforcement from each department around the country to fly to the New York funerals. And they came, one by one from every corner of this nation. My dear friend and decorated Denver Police Officer Timothy Jeffrey came with members of his department. The former Long Islander was NYPD before heading out to Colorado with his parents, wife and two sons, two decades back. Jeffrey was decorated for his heroic efforts the day of the Aurora Movie Theater Mass Shooting as a first responder on the scene. He is married to J.J., my best friend from childhood, still dear friends to this day.
Former SCPD Detective; now serving as Suffolk County Legislator, Robert Trotta, also attended the funeral of Rafael Ramos. It was held in Glendale and well over twenty-five thousand people showed up. Trotta, a full-time Suffolk County Legislator today took time from his busy schedule to head to Ramos’ Queens neighborhood. He says it’s common practice to attend the funerals of other cops if you aren’t on duty. However, he said this struck a particular nerve – it affected everyone. He said he spoke to cops from all over the country and they were disappointed with the New York mayor’s lack of support for their force. Trotta says bottom line it was an assassination of law enforcement, it was particularly disgusting.
Watching the motorcade was painful, I wept openly but it was not as painful as looking into the faces of Ramos’ two sons. Handsome young men, they were in their late teens, early 20’s perhaps.
There was a fly-over the church with a slew of copters, a motorcade of cops on bikes; they talk about the Sea of Blue but until you see it, you can’t really imagine the scope of it. It’s something every person should see once in their life to understand the brotherhood/sisterhood and their devotion to each other.
Commack Resident Steve Fontana is on the right of the photos of the Honor Guard carrying Officer Rafael Ramos. Fontanna is the Fire Commissioner of the Commack Fire Department and a former Chief. He and his sister Renatta were the Ring-al-lario King and Queen of the neighborhood; everyone knew the Fontana kids could run fast. His sister was like lightning, almost impossible to catch. On hot summer nights sometimes there would be 30-40 kids in a game. Base was a wall across the street from the Fontana home which also seconded as a great place to play handball.
Smithtown Today would like to send our condolences to the New York Police Department and Departments all over this great country. I would like to say thank you to my friends Tim Jeffrey, Rob Trotta and Steve Fontana. You are all heroes to me and always will be in addition to scholars and gentlemen. May both Officer Rafael Ramos and Officer Wenjian Liu Rest in Peace.