A time for thanks at the 68 Precinct

March 27, 2015 Helen Klein

BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photo by Helen Klein

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Local businesspeople and members of the FDNY were in the spotlight as the 68^th Precinct thanked those that had helped them get through the dark days after the murder of Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.

“It was a very impactful event, very sad and the support we got from this community was unbelievable,” said Captain Raymond Festino, the precinct’s commanding officer, who said the assassinations of the two officers, shot point blank while they sat in their patrol car, were the culminating event in an extremely difficult year for the police, second for him only to 2001.

Especially as the precinct was the site of Liu’s huge funeral, with 65^th Street turning to a sea of blue on that day, Festino expressed his appreciation during the March 17 meeting at the station house for the support that was given to the precinct as it handled an event attended by some 30,000 grief-stricken people.

People in the community, he went on “donated food, donated time. I can’t even tell you how much work was done for the funeral. It was a very large event to coordinate and without people giving back, it never would have happened.”

In particular, Festino singled out three area businesspeople — Joseph Aievoli, proprietor of the funeral home where the Liu funeral was held; Arthur Maresca; and Leske’s Co-Owner Kenny Grande — as having gone above and beyond, as, he said, did members of the FDNY.

“There’s always been a friendly rivalry between the Police Department and the Fire Department,” Festino noted. “But, when the chips are down, we’re all the same.”

That was made crystal clear, he went on, on the day that Liu’s body was brought to the funeral home, and “eight or nine fire trucks showed up to accept the body.”