New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, on the defensive following the killing of two police officers in Brooklyn, accused the media Monday of stoking racial tensions rather than objectively covering “peaceful protests.”
“What are you guys going to do? Are you going to keep dividing us?” de Blasio said when asked whether aggressive demonstrations contributed to shootings of officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.
“The few who want conflict attempt that,” he told reporters in a press conference Monday afternoon. “You guys enable that.”
The progressive New York City mayor has faced intense criticism for his handling of racial hostilities in the Big Apple, with some suggesting that his rhetoric on police officers put a target on the NYPD.
Joined by New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, de Blasio again called for a moratorium on protests until after the funerals for Ramos and Liu.
Bratton said that the leaders of the five major police unions were also “standing down” out of respect for the officers’ families. The union chiefs have directly blamed de Blasio for the killings.
Still, Bratton said the tension between police unions and de Blasio’s office was not newsworthy.
“Can you point out to me one mayor that has not been battling with the police unions in the last 50 years?” he asked reporters.
The New York City mayor has been trying to both appease agitated police officers and those leading protests against law enforcement tactics, which he said were “not contradictory thoughts.”
“We have to keep working for harmony between police and community,” he said. “I believe we will transcend this.”
