New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says Gov. Andrew Cuomo owes the NYPD an apology for saying the police department did not do its job during unrest Monday night.
Cuomo on Tuesday publicly blamed New York City’s mayor and police force for not preventing instances of looting and destruction of property – particularly in midtown Manhattan – as more peaceful protests took place in Brooklyn. The governor described the situation in the city as “inexcusable” and suggested that the National Guard should be deployed.
In a radio interview with Larry Mullins on 1010 Wins later Tuesday, de Blasio said Cuomo’s remarks had been disgraceful.
“I think he owes an apology to 36,000 hardworking men and women who have been putting their lives on the line for all of us,” the mayor said.
“The important point here, is he dishonored the men and women of the NYPD in an absolutely inappropriate way for any leader to do. Any elected official who blames the NYPD while they were out there fighting in the streets to restore order and protect people, I think that’s disgraceful.”
When Mullins said a statement from the governor’s office clarifies that he doesn’t blame the NYPD, but rather the mayor himself and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, de Blasio said “if he wanted to say Commissioner Shea, he’s a big boy, he could’ve said Commissioner Shea.”
De Blasio said he was “very confident in the NYPD” and their ability to keep New Yorkers safe without the National Guard and state police.
“We do not want heavily armed people who are not trained for the circumstance and not from here because that can lead to an altercation, that can lead to loss of life that would take the current crisis and make it much, much worse,” he said.
However, de Blasio also said the “personal” and philosophical differences” he has with his fellow Democrat Cuomo, do not “stop us from working together to get things done in a crisis.”
What Cuomo said
Cuomo’s criticism Tuesday continues longtime feuding between the two leaders.
“The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night. I believe that,” Cuomo said in his remarks to a press conference in Albany.
“I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem. I think he underestimates the duration of the problem. And I don’t think they’ve used enough police to address the situation … What happened in New York City was inexcusable,” Cuomo said.
He argued that de Blasio should have accepted his offer to use the National Guard, which the mayor has declined.
“My option is to displace the mayor of New York City and bring in the National Guard, as the governor, in a state of emergency and basically take over the mayor’s job,” Cuomo said.
But he stressed that he’s not at that point yet, and that calling in the National Guard would be “a chaotic situation in the midst of an already chaotic situation.”
In a response posted to social media, de Blasio said that Guardsmen “are not trained for the circumstance here, they have not been spending decades working on the relationship between police and community particularly in the intensive way it’s been worked on in recent years.”
There was widespread looting in midtown Manhattan on Monday night, with fires set and buildings vandalized.
Across the East River, up to 1,000 protesters marched peacefully in Brooklyn, despite the citywide curfew in place. Protesters told CNN reporters they need to get their message against police brutality across.
