Reform Judaism body mourns 2 NYC police officers

religious action center of Reform JudaismWASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)– In response to the murders of two New York City police officers on Saturday afternoon, Union for Reform Judaism President, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, delivered the following statement on Monday, Dec. 22, 2014:

“Today we mourn with the families of Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, New York City policemen murdered in Brooklyn Saturday. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Officer Liu’s wife of just two months, and to Officer Ramos’s wife and two children.  The two policemen died protecting us.  Any murder is a tragedy, leaving family and friends struggling to repair the brokenness in their hearts and in their lives, and we mourn these officers as members of our own family.

“The gunman invoked the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown as ‘justification’ for these two murders. We are among those who have, and will continue to, raise questions about some law enforcement practices, and we have abiding concerns about structural racial inequities in our criminal justice system. But those issues can never be used to justify or rationalize violence against police officers. Leaders of our Movement will be marching in cities across the nation to protest police conduct.  We will continue to advocate for a criminal justice system that does indeed provide ‘equal justice under the law.’  And we will do everything in our power to show our respect and appreciation for the men and women who, as the murders of Officers Liu and Ramos remind us all too well, regularly risk their lives on our behalf.

“As we said in the very first sentence of our recently adopted Resolution on Race and Criminal Justice, ‘law enforcement officers who risk their lives each day to ensure our safety deserve the respect and appreciation of all Americans.’  We stand with them, and today we grieve with them.”

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Preceding provided by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism