Bedford-Stuyvesant

Jeffries wants community center named for slain cops

November 5, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Mourners stand at a barricade near Christ Tabernacle Church, in the Glendale section of Queens, as the casket of NYPD Detective Rafael Ramos arrives for his wake on Dec. 26, 2014.  Calling Ramos and his partner Detective Wenjian Liu “American heroes,” U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has issued a formal request to New York City to have a Bedford-Stuyvesant community center located near the scene of their murders to be named after them. AP Photo/John Minchillo
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Calling slain NYPD detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu “American heroes,” U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has issued a formal request to New York City to have a Bedford-Stuyvesant community center located near the scene of their murders to be named after them.

Jeffries (D-Brooklyn-Queens), a member of Congressional Black Caucus leadership and the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter sent to New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Chairwoman Shola Olatoye asking that the Tompkins Community Center be named in honor of the slain detectives.

Dec. 20 will mark the one-year anniversary of the assassination.

On Dec. 20, 2014, while sitting in their marked patrol car, Liu and Ramos were approached from behind by a suspect who, without warning, shot at point-blank range, killing the two cops.

Liu and Ramos had been assigned to patrol the Tompkins Public Housing Development as a part of a “critical-response detail” that was deployed to combat an uptick in violence there.

Ramos is survived by a wife and two sons.  Liu is survived by his newlywed wife and his immigrant parents.

“Detectives Ramos and Liu were American heroes who lost their lives while protecting and serving our community. Renaming the community center is a meaningful acknowledgement of the sacrifice they made. The fallen detectives deserve our enduring respect and that is why I urge NYCHA to rename the community center in their honor,” said Jeffries, whose congressional district includes parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant.

In his letter to NYCHA, Jeffries wrote that the tragedy of the deaths of Liu and Ramos hit New York City hard and resulted in ramifications that were felt across the entire country.

“This horrific incident shocked the conscience of the nation,” Jeffries wrote. “New York Police Department officers risk their lives every day to make our communities safe.  Renaming the Tompkins Community Center to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the tragic assassinations of Detectives Ramos and Liu will respectfully pay homage to the ultimate sacrifice they made in defense of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community.”   

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama signed into law the Slain Officer Family Support Act of 2015, a bill authored by Jeffries.

The legislation extended the tax deadline so that individuals making charitable donations to organizations supporting the families could apply the tax deductions to their 2014 tax return. 

Prior to the enactment of the new law, taxpayers contributing to organizations that provided financial support to the families of the slain detectives were required to make their contributions by Dec. 31, 2014 to qualify for a tax deduction in connection with a 2015 filing.

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