An NYPD officer is dead because progressives have thrown law enforcement to the wolves and given the city over to crime.
To mince words would be a dishonor to Police Officer Jonathan Diller, a devoted father and husband, who served the city for three years before getting gunned down by a career criminal amid a routine traffic stop.
The suspect, Guy Rivera, and the driver, Lindy Jones, refused to get out of a double-parked car; instead, Rivera allegedly shot Diller in the stomach.
The two were well-known to police in the gang-ridden Queens neighborhood, with 35 prior busts between them — 21 for Rivera and 14 for Jones, whose rap sheet included arrests for assaults and attempted murder.
Jones was out on bail for gun charges that were brought last April.
Two more beneficiaries of New York’s revolving-door justice system.
Diller, 31, was an exemplary cop: He’d made more than 70 arrests and won recognition three times for “excellent police duty” during his short NYPD career.
His brother-in-law remembered him as a “a good man and a great father.”
Who, beyond the perps, is culpable in the young officer’s death? New York’s lawmakers, state and city, who’ve built an environment of crime and disorder, while treating police with disdain.
Do they feel any shame?
Day in and day out, men and women in blue go into the line of fire to protect their fellow New Yorkers.
In return, anti-cop activists spit in their faces and progressive pols demonize them.
The likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams have pushed to defund the police, legitimizing the movement that paints cops as the enemy; Williams has fostered a whole series of anti-NYPD city laws.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and her No.2, state Sen. Mike Gianaris, pushed through a series of “reforms” that keep hardened criminals on the street, putting cops at greater risk — and have refused to make fundamental fixes to those laws, even as crime soared.
The result has been a surge in attacks on police and officers resigning at record rates, demoralized by the service in a city where so many leaders side with the criminals.
Diller lost his life in service of protecting New Yorkers.
How Post Readers Can Help
You can help Officer Jonathan Diller’s 1-year-old son via the Silver Shield Foundation, which will help fund his future education. Diller, 31, was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Queens, leaving behind his wife, Stephanie, and baby Ryan.
The Silver Shield Foundation was launched in 1982 by late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for the families of NYPD officers and FDNY firefighters who lose their lives in the line of duty
You can make a contribution at silvershieldfoundation.org/donate or send it to: Silver Shield Foundation, 870 UN Plaza, 1st Floor, New York, NY 10017
He leaves behind a grieving wife and a 1-year-old son who’ll grow up without his dad.
That damage can’t be undone, but New York’s progressive leaders owe it to Diller, his family, the entire NYPD and the 19 million law-abiding residents of this state to at long last reverse course.