VOTE: Were the police right to turn their backs on Mayor DeBlasio?

Social media lit up like a Christmas tree this past weekend when police officers – a good many of them from around the country – turned their backs on New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio while he spoke at the funeral of slain NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos.

One poster suggested on his Facebook page that they all “be fired!” That in turn led to a spirited discussion – as many Facebook “conversations” do – as to not only whether or not police were right in staging this protest – but of police tactics in general; especially in handling matters that arise in minority communities.

I threw in a comment that that the action was “benign” as compared to some of the other protests that have occurred in the city calling for “dead cops!”

However, this past Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton (who has to have one of the more difficult jobs in America) noted that the action was not the appropriate venue – seeing is how it was a funeral.

In the wake of it all, there’s been an outpouring of support for the police – from Rutgers football players donning NYPD caps during their recent bowl game this past Saturday, to the coaches of the respective New York football teams doing the same.

Sports and sporting events have had a history of being staging areas for one’s political viewpoints. One need only go back to the 1968 Olympics as athletes Juan Carlos and Tommie Smith gave the black power salute instead of saluting the flag while standing on the podium.

More recently 5 St. Louis Rams used the gesture “Hands up – don’t shoot” in protest of the Fergurson, Missouri grand jury decision regarding the death of Michael Brown.

Below is a statement that the mayor recently made regarding his son and what he and his wife taught him regarding the police:

“have had to talk to (their biracial son) Dante for years about the dangers that he may face…because of a history that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face, we've had to literally train him, as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him."

It's easy to see how the police can construe the mayor's comments that black youths in particular need to be wary of the cops.

Regardless, do you think the back-turning at the funeral was it the proper staging area for police to express their outrage.

At a funeral to honor the service of a fallen cop - no.