Mayor de Blasio on Thursday opened an old wound with city police officers — saying the comments he made in 2014 about having had to “train” his biracial son, Dante, to “take special care” around cops should not have sparked controversy, because they are true.
Hizzoner infuriated cops when he made the statement following a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict the officer involved in the chokehold death of Eric Garner. It inspired hundreds of cops to turn their backs on him weeks later at the funeral of a fallen officer.
“I said something that hundreds of thousands of American families acknowledge as their reality, that families of color know they have to do with their young people,” the mayor said Thursday during a talk on income inequality at the CUNY Graduate Center in Midtown.
“And, of course, it became a huge controversy — but it shouldn’t be a controversy, because it’s true.”
De Blasio’s latest comments were met with immediate backlash from the same union heads whom he enraged in 2015.
“Biases come in all sizes and shapes,” said Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch, “and it’s time for the mayor to recognize his bias against police.”