It’s hardly the prettiest block in New York City.
Still, a block of 172nd Street in Jamaica, Queens now has a new, and some would say sacred, name — “Detective Keith L. Williams Way” — and the slain officer’s widow gave an impassioned speech at Saturday’s street-renaming ceremony, describing the beauty she sees there.
“Someone asked why 172nd and Liberty Ave.,” widow Rita Williams said at a well-attended renaming ceremony at the newly honored corner, named for her husband, who was shot and slain by a prisoner, alongside partner Detective Richard J. Guerzon, as they transported him to Riker’s Island in 1989.
“I mean … It’s commercial, sometimes it smells, there’s no trees, there’s no beauty?” the widow noted.
Still, “This is home, plain and simple,” she said to audience cheers.
The slain cop had been well- known in the neighborhood, where he’d coached the local basketball league.
“This is where we were raised,” the widow noted.
“My family still lives over 50-some more years in the same house. Keith and I got our first apartment over on Watson Place.
“This is fitting,” she said, accompanied by daughter Tennille Williams. “He deserved this and more. This is history.
“See it’s not the location, it’s the meaning. This is history,” the widow repeated.
“I want people to stop, get stuck at the light, look up and say — ‘Oooh — detective what?’ And Google — because today they Google,” she said to laughs.
“And then when they Google, they’re going to find out that two wonderful men lost their lives, two wonderful family men,” she said.
“I need the conversation, I need you guys to help me keep him alive. We can’t let ’em die; we gotta keep talking about ’em,” she urged.
“So, on behalf of Keith and Richie Guerzon’s family — who couldn’t make it, but we’re very much in touch — I want to say thank you, I love you.”
The touching re-naming ceremony was attended by Police Commissioner James O’Neill, who observed that while the 30th anniversary of the two officers’ murders was in November, “We remember them and their sacrifice each and every day.”
Williams made a difference each day, the commissioner said.
“It was his work and the work of his colleagues that made New York of today possible,” the top cop said.
“I am proud to be here 30 years later to honor him and all the brave cops who followed in his footsteps.
“So many cops worked in pairs, teams, units and squads and faced the risk of their work together.
“And they always understand what that could mean, and over the past nearly 60 years, 19 sets of NYPD partners have been killed in the line of duty. It’s a terrible reality.”
He added, “Today we are here to honor heroes like Keith, and to always be reminded of the supreme courage that NYPD cops display every day in the face of very real dangers.
“Everyone who sees this street sign, everyone who walks into the park will see Keith’s name. Each time that happens is another opportunity for us to tell his story — the stories of all who gave their lives in the line of duty.
“That is how we honor them and that’s how we make sure no one ever forgets.”