Unions representing New York police say the city's Mayor, Bill de Blasio, "has bloods on his hands" following the weekend killing of two officers who were on patrol in Brooklyn.
A third police officer was killed over the weekend in Florida in an un-related shooting.
The gunman in New York had warned on social media that he planned to retaliate against police for the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who was choked to death in Staten Island earlier this year.
Our US Correspondent Simon Marks says New York's Mayor is now facing open hostility from police on the beat.
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Bill de Blasio has only been Mayor of New York since January….but the shooting of two police officers over the weekend in Brooklyn has created what the New York Times called "the gravest challenge of his administration".
In astonishing scenes, police officers turned their backs on the mayor when he went to the hospital where officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were pronounced dead.
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"Our city is in mourning, our hearts are heavy, we lost two good men who devoted their lives to protecting all of us"
TRX: That silent protest by officers furious with the Mayor's public support for protesters who have been demonstrating over the police killing earlier this year of Eric Garner….was voiced by their union chief.
Pat Lynch heads the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association….and definitely isn't feeling especially benevolent about the city's political leaders.
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"There's blood on many hands tonight. Those that incited violence on the street under the guise of protest, that tried to tear down what New York City Police Officers did every day. /// \\\ We tried to warn. It must not go on. It must not be tolerated. That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall, in the office of the Mayor"
TRX: The fury of police is rooted in the fact that the Mayor, who is married to an African American, said a couple of weeks ago that he had talked to his own son about how to handle encounters with the New York Police Department.
It's also become apparent that the killer of the two officers over the weekend - 28 year-old Ismaayl Brinsley, who later took his own life - had warned in social media postings that he planned to avenge the death of Mr. Garner.
That's led to an enormous political argument about whether demonstrators who continue to protest about the actions of law enforcement are - in fact - encouraging retaliation.
Senator Lindsay Graham is a Republican from South Carolina.
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"The tone they're setting around the rhetoric about the cops incites crazy people".
TRX:
He spoke on CBS.
Also speaking out, Gwen Carr, Eric Garner's mother.
AXX: "I'm standing here in sorrow about losing those two police officers. That was definitely not our agenda. We are going in peace".
TRX: With the relationship between Mayor Bill de Blasio and his police force now in tatters, it's unclear what - if anything - he can do to rebuild it.
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