New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio apologized for the police response to the protests that took place in the city earlier this year following the death of George Floyd.
In a video posted to Twitter on Friday, the mayor said he feels “remorse” after a period of reflection.
“I’m sorry I didn’t do better,” he said.
This is a season of reflection.
I’ve read the Department of Investigation’s report on the NYPD’s handling of the protests in response to the murder of George Floyd. It’s clear that we have we to do something different in New York City.
We have to do something better. pic.twitter.com/nhY12KSNuE
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 18, 2020
The mayor’s apology comes in reaction to a new report released by the city’s Department of Investigation, which found that the New York City Police Department’s response to the protests was inappropriate.
“The problems went beyond poor judgment by some individual officers. Our investigation found that the NYPD, as an institution, made a number of key errors that likely escalated tensions and a potential for violence,” DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett said.
She added that many of the strategies used by officers failed to distinguish between peaceful protesters and instigators of violence.
“These tactics, which included encirclement, also known as kettling, mass arrests, baton and pepper spray use, and other tactics, reflect a failure to calibrate an appropriate balance between valid public safety, or officer safety, interest, and the rights of protesters to assemble and express their views,” she said.
After mentioning the video during a press conference on Friday, one reporter asked the mayor, “Just wondering if you can specify exactly what it is that you’re apologizing for?”
De Blasio said the city should have had a “better strategy.”
“We really missed an opportunity, given the tremendous frustration that people had after the murder of George Floyd, to try to exhibit more understanding. But granted, against the backdrop, it was really tough,” he said. “There was violence from the very beginning, again from a few, but it was really wrong. It was bad. It was hurting people. It was hurting officers.”
The mayor added, “There was looting. We had not seen anything like that in many years. It was very hard to make sense of. But it was still our job to try to sort it out. I don’t feel that I did good enough. That’s why I apologized.”
He also clarified, “The vast majority of officers did their job and respected people’s rights.”
Earlier this year, protests broke out across the country after Floyd, a black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
