The divide between the New York Police Department and Mayor Bill de Blasio is not new.
After the grand jury decision not to indict the NYPD officer who caused the choking death of Eric Garner, de Blasio said he feared for his biracial son because of police profiling and harsh treatment.
Patrick Lynch, the head of the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association fired back, saying the mayor threw police officers “under the bus” in his remarks.
De Blasio also detailed new policy changes — such as retraining officers — for the NYPD in the wake of the Garner decision, a move to which New Yorkers responded with a broad range of reactions.
“I feel for the mayor; he’s in a bind,” Councilman Ritchie Torres of the Bronx said, according to The New York Times. “On the ground, I’m sensing a level of anger and a level of suspicion toward the NYPD that I’ve never seen before.”
The police union this week posted a message asking the mayor to be barred from police officers’ funerals.
But de Blasio is not the only prominent political figure who has spoken critically of law enforcement in recent weeks.
In August, following shooting death of Michael Brown by a local police officer in Ferguson, Mo., Attorney General Eric Holder also made statements that upset some in law enforcement.
“I understand that mistrust,” Holder said of mistrust by black Americans toward police officers, according to Fox News. “I am the attorney general of the United States. But I am also a black man.”
Holder then recalled twice being pulled over for speeding and police thoroughly searching his car.
Following the grand jury decision not to indict the police officer in Ferguson, Holder held a series of community forums around the country.
“Our police officers cannot be, and cannot be seen, as an occupying force disconnected from the communities that they serve,” he said at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Many have also criticized the Rev. Al Sharpton for leading marches in New York City that at times had chants of “What do we want? Dead cops!”
Sharpton, the civil rights activist and political commentator, also penned a Huffington Post op-ed on Dec. 8 calling for Congress to step in to “change the jurisdiction threshold for federal cases and policing.
“Do not continue to live with police misconduct and violence as somehow acceptable. We are not anti-police; we are anti-police-brutality,” he wrote.
After Saturday’s shooting deaths of two NYPD officers who were sitting in their patrol car, police union leader Lynch blasted de Blasio again.
“There’s blood on many hands tonight,” the union spokesman said Saturday night, blaming those who “incited violence on the street under the guise of protest.”
