In the wake of the fatal shooting of two New York police officers over the weekend, the president of the Toronto Police union is calling for an end to online “anti-police rhetoric” that has reached a “fever pitch.”

“There are real consequences,” Mike McCormack, Toronto Police Association president, told the Star Monday.

“People are posting this stuff all over about cops being the enemy… and then somebody acts on that, and everybody goes ‘oh my God, how does this happen?’ Well, to me, it doesn’t seem to be that surprising.”

McCormack’s comments come one week after the Toronto Police Services Board decided not to discipline its chair, Alok Mukherjee, following a controversial post to his Facebook page about police-involved shootings in the U.S.

Mukherjee’s post — shared on his personal Facebook page earlier this month — was a meme created by activist group Occupy Wall Street suggesting the number of American casualties caused by police each year is far greater than terrorist group ISIS or the Ebola virus.

On Sunday night, a day after two New York Police Department officers were gunned down in their cruisers in Brooklyn, the Toronto Police Association sent an email blast to Toronto officers urging them to “remain vigilant and exercise caution” in light of “continued anti-police rhetoric.”

The shooter, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, had a long criminal history, had been treated for mental health issues and had shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend outside Baltimore hours before coming to New York to attack the police.

In a column published in the Toronto Sun Monday, McCormack said the New York ambush was anti-police sentiment “taken to the extreme.”

“Now we know that there are consequences when individuals, groups and politicians post irresponsible anti-police rhetoric, for the sole purpose of inflaming an already volatile situation,” McCormack wrote.

In an interview Monday, McCormack said he is referring to Mukherjee’s post and to others depicting police officers “as the enemy.”

“(When) we have people that are in positions of power and influence, who have respect within the community, posting or re-posting those things, I’m just really concerned about that,” he said.

Mukherjee did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

His Facebook post launched a firestorm of criticism from the police union, and prompted McCormack to call for Mukherjee’s resignation. In a letter to the Toronto police services board, McCormack alleged Mukherjee’s online actions constituted misconduct.

But in a closed-door meeting a week ago, the civilian oversight board decided not to discipline its chair after Mukherjee “expressed his sincere regret and satisfactorily explained his intent and purpose in the posting,” wrote board vice-chair Dhun Noria in a report submitted at a public board meeting Monday afternoon.

In a letter to the board, Mukherjee had alleged McCormack was waging a “campaign of condemnation” against him and that he posted the meme on his Facebook page because he thought it was a “dramatic way” of sharing a serious issue worthy of “meaningful discussion.”

McCormack said Monday he agreed there should be a debate about some aspects of policing today, but the discussion has become too heated.

“This is about pausing and dialing back the rhetoric,” McCormack said.

The killings of New York officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu has prompted a wave of concern amongst police forces across North America, some warning officers to wear bullet proof vests.

They also come during a period of heightened police criticism, following the high-profile killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. and of Eric Garner in New York. Both were unarmed black men who died in confrontations with police.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio has expressed support for protests that have followed the shootings, as well as a grand jury decision earlier this month not to indict the officer involved in Garner’s death.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

In response, the New York police union’s president invited officers to sign a petition telling de Blasio not to attend their funerals if they died on duty. On Saturday, some New York officers turned their backs on the mayor as he walked through the hospital where the two slain officers were brought.

McCormack said there will be a contingent of Toronto police travelling to New York later this week for the slain officers’ funerals. Individual officers will mostly be paying their own way, McCormack said, with some financial help provided by the union.

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca