Dallas police union tells mayor he's not welcome at memorial ceremony

The Dallas police officers murdered in the deadly 2016 downtown ambush will be honored at next week's police memorial ceremony, but one of the city's largest police organizations on Tuesday told the mayor he's not welcome.

Police Memorial Day will be held on May 17 and it's expected to be the largest the city has seen in years since it’s less than a year out from the July 7 downtown ambush shooting that left five officers dead.

But the Dallas Fraternal Order of Police released a letter Tuesday telling Mayor Mike Rawlings they don’t want him to show up.

In the letter, FOP President Michael Walton wrote, "Mr. Rawlings, the rhetoric that you have displayed over the past several years towards police has hit an all-time high."

Walton goes on to say that the widows of the officers slain on July 7, retired officers and current officers "are left suffering due to the low pay, and officers are leaving in record number under your watch."

Walton said several of the widows and several officers asked him to ask Rawlings not to come.

Walton said the mayor will make it about him, like he did after the active shooter situation last week, in which a Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedic was shot. On that day, the mayor praised first responders for their heroism in statements to local media.

"That's political grandstanding,” Walton said. “You say one thing one week and another the next, so we don't know which message you're sending, so we're asking you not to send a message at all."

A representative from the mayor's office said they were working on a statement in response to the letter.