Blue bows show support for injured policeman

On Sunday, Oceanside residents hung blue ribbons along Long Beach Road and around the veterans’ triangle to show support for Kenneth Healy, a New York City policeman from Oceanside who was injured in the line of duty on Oct. 25.

Healy, 25, and fellow rookie Joseph Meeker were injured in what police officials called a “lone wolf terrorist attack,” when Zale Thompson swung on them with a hatchet on a busy Queens Street. Healey’s skull was fractured and Meeker sustained a broken wrist. Thompson was shot dead by other officers.

Healey, who has been hospitalized since the attack, was moved to a rehabilitation center in New Hyde Park on Oct. 29. The Oceanside community is anxiously awaiting his return home, and wants him to know he was in everyone’s thoughts.

“Ken’s father is a Nassau County police detective and he lives in Oceanside,” said Pamela Pincus, who took charge of the blue bow project. “We wanted to make sure he knew we supported him.”

Pincus’s daughter Courtney, who owns the To the Stage dance studio, was the first to hang a blue ribbon. Then, Pincus said, the whole community got involved. The Oceanside Chamber of Commerce got behind the project, and Michael Graham, who owns a flower shop in Floral Park, donated ribbons, as did Blossom Heath Gardens of Oceanside. On Sunday, about thirty residents hung about 200 blue ribbons in 40-mile per hour winds.

“The biggest challenge was the weather,” said Pincus. “It just goes to show you the level of support in the community.”

There will be another welcome-home gift for Healy, as well. Oceanside High School senior Jacqueline Xerri, an award-winning filmmaker, documented the event and will present it to Healy upon his homecoming.