On January 14th, 2021, the New York Young Republican Club donated three $200 gift cards to Blue Lives Matter NYC in honor of 3 fallen officers from the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Each gift card will be presented to the family of an NYPD officer killed in service to their country so they can spend a meal together in celebration of the heroic life of their lost relation.
The NYYRC Philanthropy Committee is committed to supporting our law enforcement and honoring the families of our brave NYPD. Among so many other disruptions to New Yorkers’ lives, the NYPD has not been able to perform its typical memorial services for fallen members due to COVID restrictions. At the same time, the NYPD has been subject to a growing campaign of disgraceful treatment by left-wing media personalities, violent activists, and Democrat politicians.
The Committee was also happy to support local small businesses at this time by purchasing these gift cards for a good cause.
We honor:
- Officer Kevin Lee, 31, collapsed on January 27, 2006 following a struggle with a robbery suspect at East 86th Street and Lexington Avenue as he and his partners were trying to collar three men who had robbed a store on the Upper East Side. He left behind a wife and six-year-old son.
- Four days before Christmas 2016, Sgt. Joseph Lemm’s wife and two children awaited his call from Afghanistan, but the call never came. A suicide bomber drove his motorbike into Lemm’s convoy as it patrolled a village near Bagram Airfield. Lemm and five other service members in his convoy died in the attack. Lemm was 45. Lemm enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was promoted to technical sergeant with the 105th Base Defense Squadron. He was deployed three times, twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq. Lemm started his 15-year New York Police Department career at the 48th Precinct and was promoted to detective.
- Officer Brian Mulkeen had been in the NYPD for seven years when he was killed Sept 29, 2019 by friendly fire while wrestling with an armed man during a confrontation in the Bronx. Mulkeen dedicated his career to working in the Anti-Crime Unit at the 44th Precinct. “He was the best of the best,” NYPD Captain Jeffrey Heilig said. “He was a gentle giant, and I meant that. When it was time to be on the street, to be the police, he was. When it was time to be compassionate and to have a heart, he did.”
Special thank you to Joseph Imperatrice, founder of Blue Lives Matter NYC, for collaborating with our Philanthropy Chair, Francesca DiPaola, to make this possible. We look forward to working with the Blue Lives Matter NYC in the future. #BackTheBlue