The fault for the execution-style murders of two New York policemen lies with the "coward" who gunned them down, not with political figures or protesters who are calling for reforms in policing, a Dallas, Texas deputy police chief who represents black law enforcement professionals nationwide told
Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
"That murderous action … is on his hands alone," Malik Aziz, chairman of the 80,000-member National Black Police Association, told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner. Aziz was referring to the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who ambushed two NYPD officers in a patrol car on Saturday before taking his own life.
Story continues below video
Note: Watch Newsmax TV now on DIRECTV Ch. 349 and DISH Ch. 223
Get Newsmax TV on your cable system – Click Here Now
Brinsley,
on a spree that began with him shooting and wounding an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore, went to New York
vowing to avenge the death of police chokehold victim Eric Garner.
The killings brought recent tensions over policing in New York to a boil, with officers pointedly
turning their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio at a Brooklyn hospital after the shootings, and the mayor calling for street protesters to
stand down until after funerals for slain officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.
Aziz endorsed the idea of a pause in the demonstrations tied to Garner, the Staten Island man who died after being forced to the ground in an arrest attempt that was captured on video.
"I would like to see people take their hats off and pay tribute to fallen officers, not just in New York City, but around the United States," said Aziz, a 26-year police veteran. "A compromise means that both sides have to give up something in order for us to move forward. And you don't always get everything you want, but you'll get some things."
But he said it's up to protesters to make that judgement call, and he discouraged the criticism or blame being heaped on de Blasio, who some in law enforcement have accused of siding with protesters and consistently
undermining police.
A NYPD
union representative said the mayor had "blood on his hands" after Saturday's shooting.
"I can't agree with that type of assessment," said Aziz. "Nor do I believe that it's productive when a tragedy like this occurs. We need to be talking about getting together and mending fences and trying to move forward for the citizens … and not further dividing ourselves."
He also said the Rev. Al Sharpton, the New York civil rights activist reviled by some critics for his part in the protests, "is not the
de facto leader of all black people in the United States."
Other people are talking publicly and constructively about how cops and communities interact, but they don't have Sharpton's profile and therefore don't attract the media's limited attention.
"They're in the neighborhoods," he said. "They're citizens in the boroughs in New York. There are citizens all around, in every city, who are trying to make a change. But they don't have national recognition so their voices are not heard."
He said the same holds true for police officers like himself.
"Black police, association leaders — local, regional and national — have been addressing this situation for decades," said Aziz. "And only when tragedy happens, and things are personified on a national level, are we able to even get a microphone."
Aziz said that policing reforms are needed because "racial profiling does exist," but that real progress has been made — in part by diversifying police departments to include more people of different ethnic backgrounds.
"Things are getting better; they're just aren't where they should be," he said.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.