The death of late New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who was a “cop’s cop, truly a leader’s leader,” leaves “such a hole in our hearts,” National Police Association spokesperson Betsy Brantner Smith told Newsmax Friday during his funeral.
“I was on my agency’s honor guard,” said Smith, a retired Chicago-area police officer, on Newsmax’s “National Report.” “I have carried these caskets. I have participated in these, and Bernie Kerik was a role model, not just to me but to tens of thousands of law enforcement officers, not just in New York, but around the nation.”
Kerik’s funeral Mass was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on Friday. He died on May 29 at the age of 69 after a sudden illness.
Smith remembered Kerik as being “tough” and “serious.”
“He was so diverse in his experiences,” she said, recalling his actions during and after the 9/11 attacks while he was in office as commissioner.
“He was just really an amazing guy to watch, and he leaves such a hole in our hearts and a hole in [the] media for sure,” Smith said of Kerik, a longtime Newsmax contributor.
She recalled being a detective sergeant during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
“We all watched the New York City authorities as they responded to this horrific attack,” Smith said. “I will never forget seeing Commissioner Kerik and Mayor [Rudy] Giuliani as they so stoically dealt with this unprecedented terror attack. They were such role models for law enforcement around the nation.”
Kerik, Smith said, “went on day after day after day before the cameras to talk about the investigation, to talk about how they were going to continue to protect New Yorkers and yet deal with this truly horrific international situation.”
She added that Kerik “never wavered from that personality that you saw post 9/11.”
“He was that guy until the day he died,” said Smith. “Always informative, always stoic, always no nonsense. You know, it’s a cliche term, but, you know, he was truly a cop’s cop, truly a leader’s leader.”
And as New York police, city officials and members of the community crowded into St. Patrick’s to pay their final respects to Kerik, Smith said that “this is what every police officer and every police family who loses someone wants to see.”
“I hope everyone saw the great reverence when the bagpipes started,” she said. “There is no cop on this planet that doesn’t tear up when they hear ‘Amazing Grace’ as they lift that casket, and then as they take it into the cathedral.”
As the casket was being lifted up and the police officers were called to attention, Smith said, “What we couldn’t see behind the camera is every single veteran law enforcement officer was saluting the casket, saluting the commissioner, and really thinking about, you know, his decades and decades of service.”
Such observances, she noted, make funerals a “sad time, but it’s such a special time. We do such a wonderful job in the law enforcement profession of honoring our fallen heroes, and Bernie Kerik was one of them.”
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