Pro-police rally on Independence Mall chilled by freeze

Today's theme was best expressed by Bob Ballentine, secretary of Lodge 5, Fraternal Order of Police.

He wondered aloud "how police officers have become the enemy," rather than those who resist arrest, or kill cops, in a reference to the "public relations machine," Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose name he would not use.

"We are not the enemy," he said. "We are your neighbors."

Documentarian Tigre Hill said when he was a young boy, his mother pointed to a cop and told him, "He is your friend," closing with his advice: "Obey the law."

The Delaware Valley Pro-Blue Rally was organized by conservative Teri Adams, who heads the Independence Hall Foundation, but she declared this was a day "we suspend our political differences." She co-hosted the rally with conservative radio host (and Daily News columnist) Dom Giordano.

Giordano decried the "false narrative" in much of the media that cops are brutes.

Many of the more than a dozen speakers complained about a lack of respect for authority, and for police.

Chester County Sheriff Carolyn Bunny Welsh mentioned the "acts of kindness that are never acknowledged."

State Rep. Mike Vereb said he would introduce a resolution in the house designating 2015 as the Year of the Police Officer.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey said the anti-police protesters "don't speak for America" and noted 10 police officers had been shot so far this year.

The program closed with a tribute to NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, assassinated because of their blue uniforms.