Teen honors murdered father at NYPD essay ceremony
By Graham Rayman
From left, essay contest winner Liani Perez, 40th Precinct NYPD Officer Ariel Balbi and essay contest winner Bryan Rivera. (Graham Rayman/New York Daily News)
When Bryan Rivera was just two months old, his father was shot to death.
Rivera, now 16, was one of 130 of high school students given awards Friday for authoring essays about how to improve police-community relations, and he used the moment to honor his dad.
"I know that if he was here today, he would be very proud of me and who I have become," Rivera said, dressed in a black suit, black bow tie, and white shirt, clutching his award at the Police Commissioner For a Day ceremony at NYPD headquarters. "Everything I do, I do it in his name. All the success that I have right now I dedicate it to him."
His father, Leonardo Vernon Rivera was shot 22 times on Longwood Ave. near Westchester Ave. in Foxhurst on Oct. 1, 2002. He died at Lincoln Hospital. Cops later arrested two men in the murder.
2018 Bryan Rivera Essay by New York Daily News on Scribd
Rivera, a junior at Mott Haven Village Prep, told the Daily News that he grew up distrusting police officers, but after building a rapport with Precinct Police Officers Danny Lopez and Elizabeth Michel from his local 40th Precinct, he now wants to go into law enforcement.
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"When my father was murdered, and I heard the stories, that turned me off from being a cop. But as I grew stronger with the officers of the 40th Precinct and as I stopped listening to the prejudices, my opinion changed," he said. They are just regular people just doing their job."
Rivera focused his essay on his own struggle with his father's slaying and why he wants to become a cop. He got the chance to shadow Officer Michel for the day.
Kayla Danielle Parker spent Friday with Police Commissioner James O'Neill and was named honorary NYPD police commissioner for the day. (Marisa Sullivan)
Police Commissioner James O'Neill spent the day Friday with 18-year-old Kayla Danielle Parker.
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Her winning essay proposed creating regular youth council meetings in each precinct where teenagers can voice their views.
"I have a lot of friends who feel ways about certain things that happen in the community and I feel like that's a chance where everyone can speak," Parker, a senior at Brooklyn's Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School said. "They won't feel like they are being overpowered by only adults speaking."
O'Neill thought Parker's essay reflected well on her character. "I thought she hit three main points there that we need to do better with and one of them is with the youth," he said. "I think youth is where we have to concentrate our efforts."
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In his essay, Caleb Otero, 15, of Bellerose proposed a program to teach citizens their rights.
"There's a lot of misinformation about that, and it makes police officer's jobs harder," the St. Francis High School sophomore said. "Some people are misinformed, some people don't know so having the community be informed will make a lot of people's jobs a lot easier, on both the citizens' side and police officers' side."
The event was co-sponsored by the Police Athletic League.