De Blasio Insists He Supports Cops 'Through Action, Not Just Words'

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio brushed off suggestions on MSNBC this morning that he’s not supporting the city’s “under siege” cops, noting that the city got police some new equipment.

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The NYPD just laid to rest another officer killed in the line of duty, Randolph Holder. The Guyana native was shot 10 days ago during a suspect pursuit. Al Sharpton reportedly wanted to speak at the funeral — and tweeted a photo of himself with the Holder family last week — but the officer’s fiancee told the New York Post that Holder didn’t like Sharpton.

De Blasio has been accused by some of supporting the anti-cop fervor through his support of protests against law enforcement.

“Look, we need to bring police and community together. I think we see a lot of progress on that. Crime is down in New York City,” De Blasio insisted this morning.

“We have 35,000 police officers and they come from all different backgrounds, all different point of view, but the bottom line is they serve the city very well,” he said. “Crime is down, shootings down, gun arrests up 7 percent.”

The way to show support for police, the mayor continued, “is through action, not just words.”

“We support our cops. We’ve got new vests for our cops. We’re providing new technology, we have shot spotter in that helps them identify where shootings are,” he said.

Pressed on whether he understands why police feel they’re under siege, De Blasio said “the bottom line here is not just to say we support our police, which we do.”

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“Not just to say we need to bring police and community together. But to back it up with actual investments in our cops,” he added.

De Blasio then acknowledged the city’s “up about 20 homicides at this point,” while touting reduced gun arrests.

“That’s a problem around the country,” he said of the murders. “And last year, I’m very proud to say we had the lowest number of homicides in a half century in New York City. But I take every single one of these situations personally. I have to. As does Commissioner Bratton. We go over the numbers daily. We’re making progress, and he’s doing a great job and we have 1,300 more cops added to the force in the next year, which I’m very proud of.”

He also insisted that during his tenure “New York City is booming.”

“And I’m thrilled to say, again, 177,000 new jobs since I came in office, I’m proud of that,” he said. “But let’s face it, over the last decade, people have been hurting. I think they want to see a lot more progress locally and nationally before they gain some of that confidence again.”

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