New York Mayor Bill de Blasio accused the media of stoking a connection between anti-cop protests and the weekend killing of two police officers in Brooklyn.
At a press conference yesterday with de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, NYPD Chief of Detective Robert Boyce said there was video found on Ismaaiyl Brinsley that contained “just noise” from a protest against police.
“Just basically he’s standing there like anybody else watching the picture of an event go by, protest go by,” Boyce said. “He was not participating it. He was just taking a picture of it.”
De Blasio was asked if he would “feel comfortable” with his children out at protests where chants of “NYPD, KKK” have been heard.
“We’ve talked about this so many times, I’m not going to talk about it again. And now, the question is, what are you guys going to do?” he said to the reporters. “What are you guys going to do? Are you going to keep dividing us?”
“I’m not talking about every single one of you. But let’s get real, just in that question — 25,000 people marched down one of our streets a few days back, absolutely peaceful, no chants like that, peacefully calling for what they believed in as American citizens. And the NYPD protected them and I told people at the time, I’ve said it repeatedly, I got calls from all over this country with admiration of the NYPD for the way it protected people’s democratic rights. I heard from so many protesters who appreciated the NYPD. I heard from NYPD officers and leaders who said they saw peaceful protests, respectful protests,” the mayor said.
“What you manage to do is pull up the few who do not represent the majority, who are saying unacceptable things, who shouldn’t be saying those things. And they — some who physically attack police officers, which I’ve said is absolutely unacceptable, we will prosecute them to the fullest. Everyone must participate in finding those individuals, providing information to the police, intervening to stop them, alerting the police. I will keep saying this over and over.”
The question is, de Blasio continued, “Will you tell the world about it? Because you all are part of this, too.”
“So, yes, there are some bad people who say inappropriate things. There are some people who say hateful things. They have no place in these protests. They are not what I’m talking about,” he said. “I’m talking about — excuse me — I’m talking about the vast majority of New Yorkers like the vast majority of Americans who believe in peaceful democratic process. I don’t care where they are on the political spectrum. The vast majority of our citizens are good and decent people who do not say negative things, racist things, nasty things to police, threatening things to police.”
“The few who want conflict attempt that and unfortunately so many times you guys enable that. I don’t see reports on the many decent good people. I don’t see reports on the everyday cops who do the exemplary thing and hold the line and show restraint and discipline no matter what invective is hurled at them.”
A reporter brought up fake blood being sprayed on officers during protests, such as the red material hurled at Bratton by protesters before Thanksgiving.
“You know what? I’m telling you over again — I’m telling you over again, that’s how you want to portray the world but we know a different reality,” de Blasio replied.
“There are some people who do that. It’s wrong. It’s wrong. They shouldn’t do that. It’s immoral, it’s wrong, it’s nasty, it’s negative. They should not do that. But they, my friend, are not the majority. Stop portraying them as the majority.”
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