Killings of 2 New York officers trigger backlash

From left, NYPD’s Chief of Department James O’Neill, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, attend Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014, in New York. The previous day an armed man walked up to two New York Police Department officers sitting inside a patrol car and opened fire, killing both before running into a nearby subway station and committing suicide, police said. AP PHOTO/JOHN MINCHILLO

NEW YORK—Civil rights leaders are condemning the ambush killings of two New York police officers and expressing fear that the backlash over the bloodshed could derail the protest movement that has emerged around the deaths of two unarmed black men.

Shortly after the ambush, police union officials and politicians accused protesters of fanning anti-police fervor and contributing to the atmosphere that got the officers killed.

Civil rights leaders such as the Rev. Al Sharpton said the criticism is misguided. NAACP President Cornell Williams Brooks said it is “simply not fair” to link “the criminal insanity of a lone gunman” to the recent protests.–Rik Stevens

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