FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 15, 2000

Release #181-00

MAYOR GIULIANI ATTENDS SURVIVORS OF
THE SHIELD MEMORIAL SERVICE

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir today joined the families of slain police officers at the first annual Survivors of the Shield memorial service. The ceremony was held at the Police Memorial Wall in Battery Park.

"It is our duty to remember and honor Police Officers who were killed in the line of duty is but it is equally necessary that we remember their families," Mayor Giuliani said. "We need to support those who have lost their loved ones in any way we can, and the Survivors of the Shield have shown how far simple gestures and programs can go to aid the healing process."

Police Commissioner Safir said, "There can be no greater gift that a person can offer than to lay down his or her life for a fellow human being. Engraved upon this Wall are the names of 571 New York City Police Officers, each of whom gave that gift, who faced the dangers that come with securing the safety of this great City, and who never wavered in their pursuit of that ideal - even when the cost was their own life. We stand at the base of a wall that contains too many names, and heartfully pray that we will never have occasion to add another."

The Survivors of the Shield is a non-profit organization founded in 1988 by three widows of slain New York City Police Officers: Brian Murray, Joseph McCormack and Thomas Ruotolo. The organization assists families of slain officers through peer counseling, social events, scholarship aid and financial grants.

The Memorial Wall was dedicated in October of 1997. The names of the 571 officers who have been killed since the founding of the New York City Police Department line the wall. Names of officers killed in the line of duty are added to the wall each year.

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