NEW YORK (PIX11) — When an emotional, NYPD police commissioner, William Bratton, announced the execution deaths of two officers Saturday night—he noted the sad history of police partners being assassinated in uniform. It’s happened seven times since 1971, Bratton said. In some instances, the officer was alone, when he was targeted for wearing blue.
On May 21, 1971, Patrolmen Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini were ambushed from behind on a street in Harlem, during the early days of violent actions by the Black Liberation Army—which sought to create a separate country for Americans of African origin. Jones was black, and Piagentini was white.
Piagentini’s widow noted to PIX 11 News in 2012: “The slogan of the time was a pig is a pig is a pig. It didn’t matter if a cop was black or white. It was the uniform,” Piagentini recounted.