Bill de Blasio blasts officers who turned their backs
What a perfect time to run offense against the NYPD
During this past Saturday’s services for fallen NYPD Officer Wenjian Liu, officers again turned their backs on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as he stood to speak.
The silent protest did not please Mr. Mayor, and now he’s speaking out against the officers who chose to pivot away from the stage and screens.
Mediaite has video of De Blasio’s remarks:
The mayor said he didn’t think it was appropriate, nor “the right and decent thing to do,” considering the back-turning takes away from the officers being honored and their mourning families:
“Those individuals who took certain actions this last week––or last two weeks, really––they were disrespectful to the families involved. That’s the bottom line. They were disrespectful to the families who had lost their loved one. And I can’t understand why anyone would do such a thing in a context like that.”
De Blasio added it was also disrespectful to the people of New York.
You can also watch here (embedded), via the Daily Mail:
According to the New York Times, talks between city and police officials broke down last week, which could explain the continued tension between the NYPD and de Blasio:
Last week, the mayor sat down with police union leaders, and though the talk was cordial, neither side acknowledged turning a corner. On Friday, [Commissioner William J.] Bratton sent a memo across the Police Department asking officers not to turn away from the mayor on Sunday, calling it an “act of disrespect” that distracted from the memory of the two killed officers. But he did not make the request an order, and he said no one would be punished for not heeding it.
After the funeral on Sunday, the mayor’s office declined to address the issue of turned backs. The department’s top spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.
But Edward D. Mullins, the president of the sergeants’ union, said the turned backs represented “a real problem that exists between the police and City Hall.”
I almost never chastise politicians for defending themselves, but in this case, I’m going to. What we’re seeing here isn’t a difference in perspective on department policy, or a disagreement about the best way to handle anti-police sentiment. This is a deeply personal battle raging between city hall, and a large group of people who have seen their colleagues gunned down, and don’t feel supported by city officials.
The optics on this are terrible no matter how you size it up, and anything de Blasio does right now to try to mitigate damage done to his image is going to look like an offensive play against a grieving NYPD.
It may not be the most politically advantageous move to make, but de Blasio should make it nonetheless: let them grieve. The spin cycle can wait.
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Comments
What a perfect time to run offense against the NYPD
Bingo. Warren Wilhelm is an ideologue who is about to have his comeuppance with reality.
Apparently only the Mayor is allowed to be political and dis people who don’t agree with him.
Here’s my problem. Normally I’d be 2000% against the mayor on this, but if the mayor spoke, wouldn’t it be because the families asked him to? Isn’t it disrespectful to disregard the wishes of the families of the fallen officers?
Or am I missing something?
Maybe because the latest “family call not to turn their backs” is a lie?
http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/lefty-losers-lie-about-officer-lius-widow-on-twitter/
But then again, when you have an agenda to push, the facts don’t matter, do they?
Maybe the family didn’t ask, maybe the Mayor injected himself into the proceedings for political purposes
They might have asked the mayor, but I would bet my bottom dollar that, in situations like this, the family doesn’t ask, they’re told the mayor is coming. It’s just a given.
Clearly violent disruptive protests are good……..silent protests are bad.
Typical lib-think.
Is De Blamo’s real assertion that whether it is assassination by a gun, or a protester calling for an assassination and the mayor agreeing with it, or the mayor’s defending himself via the use of character assassination, that it is done best when backs are turned on the assailant?
Touche!
Ouch! de Blasio is like the guy who calls his wife fat but then says that if she only ate her own cooking she would lose weight! This fool is so tone deaf that it is hilarious.
Too bad the resulting assault would never make it to the jury.
Wanna bet how many jurors would sprain their ribs from laughing?
de Blase has shown repeatedly he doesn’t care one whit for his own police department, nor whether he has their support. All he’s done by again castigating the NYPD is obey his lib base’s demands. He’s throwing bones here.
When a mayor of NY City is chumming around with Al Sharpton what are the rank & file supposed to think?
I’ve never been employed in law enforcement but I can totally understand their concerns. Hell, I would be scared of the current mayor!
He can’t even criticize the officers in his own name. Instead he attacks them in the name of the families of the murdered officers. Can’t get much lower than that (but I’m sure he will).
This jerk has been teaching his son to be a racist. He taught his son that he has to be polite to the police, do what they say and keep his hands away from his phone ….because the cops are racist!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/de-blasio-details-talk-son-dealing-cops-article-1.2036870
I tell my (white) kids the same thing, but the reason I give is that the police have a job to do, and my kids’ job as citizens is to help or get out of the way. I also tell them that police have to deal with awful things, and you never know what has happened to a police officer in the last few minutes or weeks. I tell them to be especially polite and calm with an officer who seems wound up, because you never know what the officer has had to deal with.
DeBlasio has no imagination, and no human sympathy for the people who have the toughest job in his city. He should be forced to resign, for lack of the temperament needed for his job.
Yup, my Irish father told me that same things about dealing with the police. Be polite and respectful. Of course, he demanded that I be that way with EVERYBODY, but why quibble about details.
I can tell you as a former beat cop that many parents DON’T have this conversation with their kids. Some real punks out there. And color doesn’t matter.
two cops shot in the Bronx this evening… saw it on the vidiot and it’s in the sidebar
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pjmedia/instapundit/~3/6Xx0VQqTTZA/
I assume that the news of this shooting was . . . stimulating . . . for de Blasio.
I have every confidence that every single police officer at that funeral respects the families of the slain officers far, far more than de Blasio.
I’m just a little conflicted about Commissioner Bratton. He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place here. He has to at least look like he’s carrying out the mayor’s orders, or he’ll be canned, but he has to keep the respect of the rank-and-file officers or he’s nothing but a figurehead with a short shelf life.
My understanding is that, so far, Bratton has retained the respect of the officers. I imagine that’s because Bratton came up through the ranks. He’s a cop, not a pol. But if has to choose a side, he’d better choose the cops or he can stick a fork in his command. I don’t envy Bratton one bit. He seems like a decent sort and is in a very tough spot – that di Phonio has placed him in, obviously without regret.
If Bratton isn’t willing or able to accurately convey the sentiment of his department to the Mayor he should resign. I believe he has been part of the problem from the very beginning, he should have ran from this Mayor when he started the NYPD are racists commentary. In my opinion it is shameful what he has done.
de Blasio is getting the the rebellion he encourages on the street-what goes around comes around.
He deserves no repsect for being Mayor-only for being a decent person.
Right now the smartest move De Blasio could make is the one few politicians, even the smart ones, seem capable of doing, shut up. And he’s not one of the smart ones.
Bratton? Seems to me he’s already taken sides and it isn’t with the NYPD. He might have “been” a cop but now he’s a politician. And De Blasio the blowhard is his boss.
“Those individuals who took certain actions this last week––or last two weeks, really––they were disrespectful to the families involved. That’s the bottom line. They were disrespectful to the families who had lost their loved one.”
OK, NOBODY is THAT clueless. NO. BODY.
The “bottom line” is that the NYPD KNOWS who Kaiser Wilhelm IS, WAS, and plans to BE. He’s a race-baiting, Collectivist puke who cares not a whit about the people of NYC or their first responders. He…a la Ball-less Bill Clinton…LOATHS the NYPD, and he shows that by word and deed.
They know him, and they’ve shown the feeling…as the cows say…is MOOOO-tual. You don’t have a show of mass contempt for a “leader” like this except once in a blue moon. I can’t recall the last one.
Ms. Miller;
May I offer an outsiders perspective.
There’s an old saying that goes “a dog won’t crap, where it eats, that discusses training a dog and the sense of hygiene that an animal has instinctively.
Unfortunately for the citizens of New York City, Mayor de Blasio, apparently has less instincts than an animal. Now he has to live with the consequences of a police force, so worried about defending itself from terrorists (the axe wielding assailant that attacked 4 police men) and radical blacks (that were whipped into a frenzy by Al Sharpton, Eric Holder Obama and de Blasio, himself) that they won’t respond to a call without back up.
De Blasio CRAPPED ALL OVER the NYPD. Does he expect them to kiss his fanny? “His Honor” is learning a lesson, that respect is earned, not demanded. Unless he apologizes to and supports the police, they are going to continue their defensive posture until America decides to wall off New York City, and let it GO GOTHAM.
These two immovable forces, playing chicken with the safety of the city. The police officers know they hold the power, despite what the unions say: The City and Unions can’t discipline or replace all of the Officers at once, unless Martial Law is declared and the National Guard is called in for replacements (which will make de Blasio look like a hypocrite). Looks like de Blasio has some apologizing to do and show the police some support.
Speaking of respect, how about hizzoner’s absolutely hideous wife wearing blue jeans to the funeral? If anyone doesn’t think that is big poke in the eye to the NYPD, you are naive about these commies.
http://www.examiner.com/article/de-blasio-slams-cops-for-disrespect-despite-his-wife-wearing-jeans-to-funeral