It’s hard to think of a moment in New York quite like that in which a long line of police — the city’s Finest — turn their backs on Mayor de Blasio as he makes his way into the press conference in respect of the two officers assassinated Sunday at Brooklyn. What makes it so powerful is the dignified silence of the officers. They have had enough betrayal from this mayor and his enablers. What needs to be said is that millions of New Yorkers are with their police department. They also have their backs to the mayor.

We comprehend that there are others who are with Mr. de Blasio and the wing of the Democratic Party he represents. But it is hard to recall any mayor who so pointedly represents only one faction within our polity and whose central rhetoric — “one city” — is such a calculated mockery. Millions of New Yorkers, in the privacy of their homes, have been shaking their heads in disbelief, even disgust, at the way this campaign against the police has been waged. The sad truth is “one city” is not something Mr. de Blasio wants to — or can — lead.

The crocodile tears from the left are something to behold. The Times is out this morning with an editorial called “Killing of Police Tests Promise of ‘One City’.” It claims the killings of the two officers “shook the soul of the city and require us all to honor the dead.” It says that the officers were patrolling in Brooklyn “not to oppress but to serve and protect.” The Times’ squib is tucked under a much longer editorial calling on the Obama administration to unleash a prosecutor against the Central Intelligence Agency.

Millions of decent New Yorkers who want no part of racism cannot stomach the way this campaign against the police has been waged in the courts, in the political shops, on the campuses, in the so-called civil rights organizations. These millions know that civilian control of the police, like that of the military at a national level, is one of the sacred principles of our democracy. They know that the words of Patrick Lynch of the Patrolmen’s union — “there’s blood on many hands tonight” — may be harsh but they are also true.

This emotion has been building up for a long time. It was evident in the standing long ovation that greeted Commissioner Raymond Kelly when, in 2012, he defended the NYPD against the campaign to vilify the police for gathering intelligence in the Muslim community among which terrorists have hidden. It was a campaign egged on by the Associated Press. The sense has been building that the stop-and-frisk lawsuits were allowed to evolve from individual cases to a vast class action campaign against all New Yorkers.

It’s incredible that the appeals courts could rule on the one hand that the judge in the stop and frisk case failed to maintain the appearance of impartiality that is required of a court and on the other hand allow her ruling aginast the police to stand. Millions in this city just shake their heads in disbelief as Mayor de Blasio has made Reverend Sharpton an unelected partner in governing the city. And that he has rushed to pay out claimants against the police in the city using money from taxpayers the police protect.

Whether the assassination of Officers Ramos and Liu would have happened had an active stop-question-and-frisk program been operating in Brooklyn, one can only guess. But the killer of Officers Ramos and Liu was just the sort of gun-toting thug the program was designed to find. A fitting monument to these martyred officers would be a return to the kind of pro-active policing that we had under Mayors Bloomberg and Giuliani. That will no doubt take a new election, and until that happens the city of New York will be in for a dangerous passage.