NYPD Ambush Murders Have West Coast Ripples

The execution-style shooting deaths of two New York police officers in the Bedford Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn have prompted Los Angeles police to wear black bands on their badges.

Police Chief Charlie Beck announced the move hours after the ambush killings of officers Rafel Ramos and Wenjian Liu. The shooting suspect -- 28- year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley -- ran into a subway station and committed suicide with a gunshot to his head as police approached.

“Our hearts go out to the entire NYPD family as they mourn the tragic loss of two brothers,” Beck said on his Twitter account.

Beck’s Tweet showed a photo of an LAPD badge draped in black.

Expressions of condolence and support were also made by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles city and county fire departments, California Highway Patrol Southern Division and other Southland law enforcement and public safety agencies, as well as commanders from individual LAPD divisions.

One well-known Los Angeles-based rapper, however, took the opportunity to make a controversial post on social media.

“I guess y’all ‘can’t breathe’ either,” Jayceon Terrell Taylor, better known as “The Game,” posted to his Instagram account.

The backlash in the account’s comments section was swift and profane, although some defended the 35-year-old.

Taylor aggressively defended himself in a subsequent post, saying his comment referred to a photo of three men holding a sign expressing support for the NYPD and wearing shirts bearing the slogan, “I Can Breathe.”

The phrase, “I can’t breathe,” chanted during protests against police tactics, refers to the last words of Eric Garner, who died of a heart attack after a struggle during his arrest by NYPD officers in Staten Island.

A grand jury declined to indict any of the officers involved, stirring a raft of protests in New York, Los Angeles and throughout the U.S.

• City News Service