February 12, 2020Mayor Bill de Blasio: Monsignor Romano, thank you for all that you do to give strength and consolation to all the men and women of this department and this city in difficult moments like this. I want to thank our Commissioner, Dermot Shea, all the leadership of the NYPD, District Attorney Melinda Katz, and all of you who are here today. We are here united with Brian’s family. We are here to appreciate Brian, all he was, all he stood for, all he did. To Linda, to Leanne, to his whole family – we are here for you. We are here to stand by you not just today but always. You know, grief comes in many moments, in moments like this, but in all the small moments each day. It’s up to all of us to stand by and support you in those moments.To the entire NYPD family and especially to all the men and women of the 1-0-2 Precinct – you lost a brother, you’re feeling that pain, our hearts are with you today as well. When we lose a member of our police force our whole city learns about the life of a good man and we learn it too late. We learn his story. And with Brian we learned three things, I think, very, very vividly. One, how much he loved his family. His blood family for sure but his Police Department family as well. He showed it in so many ways the love and the pride he had. He especially took pride in mentoring new officers and they learned so much from him.The second thing we all learned was his love for his community, Calverton. He was someone everyone knew for the whiffle ball games, for the barbeques which became legendary, and he earned nicknames that say something about him – Uncle Brian, Smiles – the kind of personality that loomed so large and people felt so drawn to.And the third thing we learned was about his absolute devotion to the work of the New York City Police Department. Seventy miles he would travel each way each day to serve at the 1-0-2 and it was not only his achievements, it was not only the cases he solved, it was the way that he left an impression on the people he left, the comfort he provided to people going through often the worst moments of their lives. Brian was there for them. There is no question how special a human being Brian was and how missed he is. And there should be no question about how special each member of the NYPD is for the very fact that they made a choice to protect everybody else.Like Brian every member of this department has their own stories, their own quirks, their own nicknames that tell us the caliber of the person, what’s in their heart and soul. And like Brian every member of this department would put their life on the line in a moment, any moment, for their fellow New Yorker.I think we, as a society, forget so many things, and one thing we forget is that New York City simply cannot work, does not work without guardians like Detective Brian Simonsen. Our society cannot work without guardians like Detective Brian Simonsen. And we have to understand that every day and respond with the respect and support that our guardians deserve. It is time for all New Yorkers to appreciate that and act on that, to show the same love and respect that Brian did every day to his family, to his fellow officers, to the people he served, to the people in Calverton. He lived that way. We should live that way.I’ll conclude by saying on behalf of every New Yorker, to Linda, to Leanne, to the whole family, again, we will always, always be here for you and we will all honor Brian. We remember him. We will try to live as well as he did. And we will remember to support those who carry on his good work. Thank you and God bless you all.Monsignor Robert Romano: Now, I’d like to invite the Police Commissioner, the Honorable Dermot Shea.Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea: Good morning, everyone. Leanne, I said no speeches, right. I want to thank everyone – as I look out what a beautiful sight. Monsignor Romano, I’m on my best behavior, so I want you to know that. But I do agree with you, I think if this church was twice the size, I think it would be filled, and I’m sure there’s people outside. It’s such a beautiful sight. I want to thank everyone for coming here this morning to honor the sacrifice but more importantly the life of our detective, and that’s exactly what he was. He was your husband, your son, your grandson, but he was our detective.Thank you, Mayor. Thank you to the line-of-duty families in attendance, members of the community, elected officials. Thank you to the members in blue, specifically the 1-0-2 Precinct past present, upstairs and downstairs – one family to the executive staff. But mostly thank you, Leanne, Linda, Vernon, Sean, and the entire extended family. It’s hard to believe it’s a year already. February 12th, 2019 – and I’m sure that, Leanne, you can remember and we all can where we were, the call that came in. I was getting ready to go home, and that call that really just kept getting worse and worse and worse as more details came in. Probably thousands of members of the service rushing to Queens to do anything that they could to help.I look at today and I think this often and I’ve probably said it before, as I sit kneeling after receiving communion and I leaned over and I said to Ben Tucker, Ave Maria just goes right to your soul every time with me personally. I think if the dichotomy that these are the best and the worst of times and Monsignor Romano I have no idea how to square that with faith. You see it’s such a terrible, terrible time that, Leanne, you should not have to suffer through. And then you see moments like this. You see all of New York City walking up that aisle and receiving communion, standing with you, celebrating his life. And what a life he had, he really, really did.And you know I didn’t know him. If I met him, I probably would have remembered him but I don’t think I ever did but I talked a little to Ricky and I sat in the squad and I heard the stories, and I sat in your living room and I heard even funnier stories which I probably can’t repeat.[Laughter]Especially the one about how you met in Vegas. Wasn’t it Vegas? That was a funny story. But that’s what we do as a family and I told you a year ago that you will probably get sick of us. And I don’t know if you’re there, and some of the other line-of-duty families can attest to the same. You know we put our cops through the academy for six months of training and we train them on everything. And there’s no possible way that we can prepare them for days like this. The good and the bad, and what it means to be a New York City detective or police officer.I just want to spend a real quick moment talking about Brian, celebrating him. I’ve spoken about being a New York City police officer a lot recently in the three months as police commissioner and talking about what an honor it is and a privilege to touch people’s lives. And we had an award ceremony this week at One Police Plaza, and you’ll never read about it in the paper, but cops running into fights like Brian did, cops racing to a rooftop to pull somebody off that’s going to jump, cops racing to a burning car to pull somebody out after a car accident, saving a child’s life. That was just this week.And then you think about really – well I think about more than that because those are the amazing stories, but what I try to convey to the men and women in blue coming on this job is the opportunity you have every day to interact with ordinary citizens and change their lives. I think that’s Brian’s legacy. You hear the stories, Leanne, all the crazy stories. I like the ones where they told me he would work out in the gym and then run upstairs and throw a shirt on with like half a tie and run out and interview complainants. He violated every law in the book, in the detective guide, Rodney, just so you know. He’s coming in on his day off. You have people that were crime scene investigated coming to his funeral.Think of the lives he touched. It’s immeasurable how his legacy lives on. The organ donation story that we did yesterday – that’s going to be Brian’s legacy, all of those stories. He lives on in each day, and to the men and women in blue, you really carry on that legacy. Leanne, I’ll finish and just say, it is with the most heavy heart that we are with you today but that’s what I want to stress. We are with you today, we are with you tomorrow, and we are with you always. God bless you.Monsignor Romano: I’d like to invite the Chief of Detectives, Rodney Harrison to please come up.Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison, NYPD: Good morning, everybody. This is an unbelievable turnout. Monsignor, thank you for all you do for these memorials and support. Mr. Mayor, I can’t thank you enough for what you do for the NYPD. And thank you, everybody, for being here today. Leanne, Linda, thank you for getting us through a very, very difficult one year. Your strength can’t be measured. You know, my wife who met you recently up at the DEA convention was extremely impressed by your courage. She’s still singing your praises to this day. She sends her love. So, thank you very much. I also want to thank the other line-of-duty families that come out to support – you’re amazing and it’s just great to see how we come together under unfortunate circumstances like this.So, one year ago, we lost our brother, Brian. And unfortunately, never had the opportunity to meet him. Me and Brian had a lot in common, believe it or not. We’re both follicley challenged, which I’m not sure – no one should be laughing because a lot of you are knocking on that door. Both of us like to have a cocktail, but yet, at the same time, break people’s chops in the interim. I hear he’s a big sports fan. I’m not going to hold it against him he was a Giants fan. I’m sure he was a diehard sports junkie like myself. But what I found most important is that he supports the men and women that wear this patch on their uniform.You know, Brian, I’ve got to tell you a quick story. I kind of needed your support when we were up at this DEA convention, I had some old-timers surrounded me, and they had me up to like about 4 o’clock in the morning, grilling me about, you know, my credentials – am I qualified to be the Chief of Detectives. So, you know, Brian, I could have used you during that timeframe. But it was a pretty good meeting with these guys that have walked the walk.Another thing that me and Brian have in common is our pursuit – our pursuit to get bad guys. It’s better known as being the police. My bad guy days are long behind me, as I sit behind a desk and go to 10 meetings a day – no disrespect, Commissioner, but it is what it is. But dudes like Brian, he was living his dream, riding in the streets. You just take a look at Brian’s career, he actually did it right. You’ve got to think about this for one second – he was a patrol cop, then went to anti-crime, and then went to the squad. He was in the detective’s squad – it was six years on the job. That, to me, shows you the type of individual he was. I couldn’t believe when I saw this, but he had over 260 robbery arrests. You’ve just got to think about that – 260 victims that he was able to find a way to bring some type of comfort to them, taking those individuals and putting them behind jail. That’s the type of guy he was. Not too many people can say that.You know, I’m sure you’ve heard the story about how he came into work on his day off and the horrible incident that happened a year ago. And after hearing about that incident, I kind of found out a little more about Brian. And I looked at his background and heard the story, and I said to myself, wow, this guy – wow, impressive. He is the police. He did what he had to do to take care of that community and keep them safe. So, guys like Brian are far and few between. He had 19 years on the job – a lot of people with 19 years on the job, they’re parked behind a desk – give me a desk, give me a phone, and leave me alone. He was still out there rocking and rolling, challenging bad guys.And now, we’re here. What are we going to do to keep his legacy alive? So, we have to make sure that we have each other’s back, because that’s what Brian did. We have to make sure that we support one another, because that’s what Brian would have wanted. So, to all [inaudible] to my investigators in the room, continue that work of being the greatest detectives in the world. Happy hunting. Make sure if you go out in the streets that you wear those vests, because, if not, Leanne’s going to come for you. And as always, thank you very much and stay safe.[Applause]