Twenty-seven New York City African-American community leaders signed off an editorial published in the New York Times Wednesday that condemned the water attacks on NYPD officers.

The editorial reads in part:

As African-American leaders who are proud to call New York City home and/or where we work, we were appalled at the recent verbal attacks on and water dousing of police officers in Harlem and Brooklyn who appeared to be lawfully executing their responsibilities to keep our communities safe and orderly.

This behavior is not at all representative of the millions of law-abiding citizens in our diverse communities. Nonetheless, it would be irresponsible for us not to call out this unacceptable behavior.

We ask police officers to put their lives on the line for our communities every day. We demand that they serve and protect us all. In exchange, we should show the N.Y.P.D. respect when its officers are lawfully doing exactly what we have asked them to do.