You stay classy, “Progressives:”
According to a report via the well-connected* Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush in Politico, those commuters were not entirely unmistaken. Though de Blasio may not have felt himself entirely in league with the protest movement, he certainly sought to cater to them so as to avoid inflaming an already volatile situation.
People close to de Blasio also said he supported the Garner protesters not because he backed their position, but because he wanted to avoid antagonizing them in the wake of the grand jury decision not to indict the officer who killed Garner. Above all, one source said, de Blasio wanted to avoid provoking riots akin to the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after a white cop shot an unarmed black man whom he later said had attacked him.**
This disconnect between America’s elected officials, who have been effectively intimidated by a small but menacing anti-law enforcement protest movement and the greater public has, in part, fueled the backlash against the mayor’s office in the wake of the execution-style murder of two NYPD officers.
In an effort to project concern, New York City’s embattled mayor requested that the city’s protesters, to whom he has extended a perhaps inappropriate level of deference over the last several weeks, to observe a moratorium on demonstrations against the NYPD until after slain Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were laid to rest. De Blasio’s appeals have gone ignored.
According to a CNN reporter who was on the scene in Brooklyn on Monday at a memorial honoring the fallen officers, a group of protesters stormed the commemorative service and began screaming at the attending officers (h/t The Blaze).
While reporting on this episode, Sara Ganim made an effort to insist that the vast majority of those who attended this memorial were supportive of the NYPD. Her efforts could not have been more thoroughly undermined, however, by the sounds of angry protesters whom she had to speak over in order to be heard.
Crashing memorials for brave men killed in the line of duty? Why, it’s as if:
#AlSharpton is the Fred Phelps of the Democratic Party. Which is quite an accomplishment, considering Fred Phelps was also a Democrat.
— Katewerk (@katewerk) December 22, 2014
* Well, that’s one way to describe them. This definition works as well.
** Why does that sound like Thrush and Haberman are attempting to cast doubt on Darren Wilson’s story? Oh right, see previous footnote.
Related: “Bill de Blasio goes after media.” As I said at the start of the month, “There’s One More Shoe Waiting to Drop.” Since the far left de Blasio likely views all of the media — New York media(!) — as being to his right, does this count as our first big right-wing media bias sighting of the post-election season? In any case, this probably won’t end well for him.
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