THE Reverend Al Sharpton, a longtime thorn in the side of the New York Police Department (NYPD), will deliver remarks at a funeral for a cop gunned down last week in the line of duty.Sharpton, who has led countless marches in the five boroughs and across the country against police brutality, will call for unity between the police and the community when he speaks Wednesday at services for Officer Randolph Holder at the Greater Allen AME Cathedral in Queens.
Holder’s family and their minister said the slain cop’s father met with Sharpton on Saturday and asked him to attend and speak.
“The city needs to be unified,” said the Reverend Les Mullings, pastor of the Far Rockaway Community Church of the Nazarene. “They didn’t want his death to be in vain.”
Mullings said the slain cop believed strongly in community policing.
“He’s going to be a catalyst for unification in the city,” Mullings said.
Sharpton could not be reached for comment Sunday. A spokeswoman, Rachel Noerdlinger, said Sharpton had been invited to speak.
A day earlier, Sharpton paid tribute to the fallen officer, laying a wreath outside the Police Service Area in East Harlem where Holder served.
“When we find police officers who try to protect us and serve our community and actually put their lives on the line to do that, we stand up for those police officers,” Sharpton said at his weekly rally Saturday.
“We are not anti-police. We are anti-police-brutality.”
Holder, 33, a Guyanese immigrant and third-generation cop, was shot and killed Tuesday night along a pedestrian overpass above the FDR Drive when a gunman opened fire on him and his partner.
The suspect, Tyrone Howard, was arrested and charged with murder.
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch did not reply Sunday to requests for comment on Sharpton’s planned appearance.
A day earlier, after Sharpton criticised procedures that let Howard walk the streets despite his violent past, Lynch said Sharpton was “one of the chief extremists fanning the flames of anti-police sentiment for his own gain.”
Ed Mullins, President of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said he was stunned that Sharpton will be a part of the service.
“This is an ironic twist,” Mullins said. “Sharpton is a divider. Maybe the family doesn’t understand his history with the NYPD. The city is divided because of people like Sharpton.”
Mullins still plans to go to the funeral and doesn’t expect that cops will boycott the service for their fallen brother.
“He’s going to have to throw some magic around if he wants to get those at the funeral on his side and bring peace to the people,” Mullins said.
At a Guyanese tribute to his son, Holder’s heartbroken father, Randolph Sr, confirmed Sunday that Sharpton would be speaking at the funeral. He later shared an emotional tribute to his son at the celebration of life service in Brooklyn.
“He was highly disciplined and proud,” the grieving father said. “Proud of himself and where he was going, what he stood for. He was a unique example of a truly disciplined individual and citizen of a country.”
Nearly 200 people filled St Stephen’s Lutheran Church Hall in Flatbush, where mourners sang the national anthems of the U.S. and Guyana. Guests watched as a projection screen flashed pictures of Holder between touching tributes to the slain cop.
Holder’s fiancée, Mary Muhammad, 32, spoke lovingly about a man she had known since high school.
“He’s my best friend,” she said. “He was a beautiful person. Not one person could say anything bad about him. He touched everyone he met. He was amazing.”
After Wednesday’s funeral, the fallen officer’s body will be flown back to his native Georgetown, Guyana, for burial in a family plot. (New York Times)