Police Officer Eddie Byrne did not die in vain. According to an article published in the NY Daily news in September last year, the cold-blooded execution of this rookie cop in South Jamaica, Queens, on Feb. 26, 1988, five days after his 22nd birthday — a hit ordered by a monstrous drug kingpin from a jail cell and carried out by four remorseless gun punks — was the turning point that helped initiate the end of the murderous crack epidemic in New York City.
After Byrne’s slaying, the NYPD began to reclaim the violent streets where murders totalled 2,244 that year, compared to 515 last year. They did it in Eddie Byrne’s name.
Larry Byrne, a former federal narcotics prosecutor and the older brother of Eddie Byrne was at the last parole hearing and testified about why these cop killers should never see a single day of freedom.
At the time of his brother’s murder, Larry Byrne was an assistant U.S. attorney under Rudy Giuliani. For seven subsequent years, he successfully prosecuted more than 100 violent drug dealers. “It was personally rewarding because it could protect other people from suffering the way my family did,” he says. (Excerpts taken from NY Daily)
