Mayor Bill de Blasio implored New Yorkers Monday to ignore the “loudest and most disrespectful voices” in the simmering debate between his office and the New York City Police Department over his approach to policing issues.
“Rather than get lost in the daily back-and-forth by the loudest and most disrespectful voices, let’s talk about where we need to go as a city,” de Blasio said Monday in a press conference meant to focus on a drop in major crime rates in New York City.
However, the showdown between de Blasio and the NYPD has taken center stage in the Big Apple, with police officers turning their backs on the New York City mayor at funerals for fellow cops killed in an assassination-style shooting in Brooklyn.
Some officers say de Blasio stoked anti-police sentiment, making cops a bigger target in the wake of protests in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island.
De Blasio has spent much of his public schedule in recent days paying tribute to slain officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. Yet, the feud with the NYPD shows no signs of fading.
Still, de Blasio on Monday called the NYPD the “world’s greatest police department” and urged the city to move past the controversy.
“That positive vision will prevail over the negative visions,” he insisted. “We’re going to find a way to move forward together.”
