Hero Officer Holder

Before I get to last night’s presidential debate, let me start with the grim, rainy, melancholy but still inspiring and reassuring funeral for hero NYPD cop Randolph Holder yesterday in Jamaica Queens.
Brother Craig and I went to pay our respects, parking blocks away and walking through a gray rain that ranged from mist to downpour toward the Greater Allen AME Cathedral, the weather matching the mood.
Passing rank upon rank of thousands of cops from the city and throughout the region all gathered to salute their slain colleague, I said hello and sorry to as many of them as I could, amazed as I always am by how wonderfully integrated the force is, and how young so many of these cops are, many if not most still in their 20’s.
Making our way to the modest cathedral, we were spotted by an inspector friend who had his aide escort us through the ranks to a riser right behind the Mayor and First Lady Chirlane McCray, both of whom were standing at attention, hatless in the rain.
And I was glad in retrospect that there were no controversies, not about the mayor or about Al Sharpton or about ‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬.
It was just about saying goodbye to a fallen hero cop, whose casket was carried into the cathedral by the police honor guard, which followed the Emerald Society bagpipes inside, where a visibly shaken police commissioner Bill Bratton eulogized his fallen hero cop.
Inside, surrounded by her family, his fiancée Mary Muhammad remembered Officer Holder as a remarkable man who chose to be both a target and a hero.”
RIP Randolph Holder. Thank you for your service to your city. And thank you for bringing us together at least to grieve your passing.