Did Bill de Blasio Just Become the Most Hated Man in America?
By Tyler O'Neil
PJ Media
May 31, 2020
As the riots and destruction across America continued for the fifth day
after protests originally over the death of George Floyd devolved into
looting and destruction in Minneapolis, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio
despicably attempted to score political points by blaming President
Donald Trump for the “atmosphere” of “tension and hatred and division”
behind the protests. Yet he managed to alienate the anti-Trump left a
few hours later by refusing to condemn police who drove a cruiser into a
crowd of protesters.
I’ve not seen the specific words coming out of the White House or
actions but I can tell you this, and this is the blunt truth: The
president of the United States helped to create this atmosphere, and
that’s the tragedy here,” de Blasio said in a press conference on
Saturday.
“It doesn’t matter what your party affiliation is, it doesn’t matter
what you think of President Trump, there’s been an uptick in tension and
hatred and division since he came along, it’s just a fact,” the mayor
added. “And it’s not the reason for any specific act but it has helped
to poison the atmosphere. So we’ve got to get back to leaders talking
about unity.”
While Trump’s rhetoric has been divisive, it was despicable for de
Blasio to attempt to blame the riots and looting and destruction on the
president. Trump has condemned the horrific death of George Floyd, the
black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly
ten minutes. The president ordered the FBI and the Department of Justice
to investigate the case, demonstrating his seriousness in bringing the
cops to justice.
In cases of police abuse, the system moves slowly because police need
a broad latitude to handle threats to public safety. While Derek
Chauvin, the man who knelt on Floyd’s neck, should have been arrested
earlier, he has been arrested and charged with manslaughter and
third-degree murder. The system is working to bring him to justice.
Yet protests over George Floyd’s death
devolved into lootings at a Target store near the police station.
Rioters in Minneapolis burned an Arby’s, an AutoZone, and an affordable housing apartment building. The violence spilled into other states, as rioters
broke into the Ohio Statehouse on Friday morning.
As of the wee hours of Sunday morning, police have arrested nearly 1,400 people in 17 U.S. cities since Thursday.
Governors in nine states have activated their states’ National Guards to
respond to riots: Minnesota, Ohio, Georgia, Colorado, Wisconsin,
Kentucky, Texas, Utah, and Washington State. In another five more,
governors have said they planned to activate the National Guard.
Cities across the country set curfews to stem the violence,
including: Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Denver,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Cleveland, Columbus, Portland, Miami,
Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, and Rochester.
America’s cities look like war zones. Cars are burning in Grand Rapids.
There are clashes in downtown Reno, Nev.
George Floyd’s family has insisted that this is the last thing Floyd would have wanted.
As for de Blasio’s suggestion that Trump has not talked about unity,
the president did call for unity during a speech on Saturday afternoon.
“I understand the pain that people are feeling. We support the right
of peaceful protestors, and we hear their pleas. But what we are now
seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with justice or
peace. The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters,
looters, and anarchists,” Trump lamented.
While the president did attribute the “violence and vandalism” to
antifa and “other radical left-wing groups,” he urged that “right now,
America needs creation, not destruction; cooperation, not contempt,
security and not anarchy. Civilization must be cherished, defended, and
protected. The voices of law-abiding citizens must be heard and heard
very loudly.”
Trump noted that the mobs “are terrorizing the innocent, destroying
jobs, hurting businesses, and burning down buildings. The mobs are
devastating the life’s work of good people and destroying their dreams.
… We cannot and must not allow a small group of criminals and vandals to
wreck our cities and lay waste to our communities. We must defend the
rights of every citizen to live without violence, prejudice, or fear.”
Trump’s response has not been perfect, but he is not to blame for the
riots, the looting, the arson. Only the mob itself is truly responsible —
along with instigators who appear to be working across state lines.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) has suggested the rioters have come from out of
state, and Attorney General William Barr announced that rioters who
cross state lines to instigate this violence will be charged under
federal law.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden
went out of his way to condemn a Trump tweet calling for an end to the looting and violence that
Twitter pseudo-censored on Friday. The president (likely unwittingly) used a phrase with an ugly racial history in defense of law and order.
Meanwhile, at least 13 members of Joe Biden’s staff
publicly announced
that they had donated to an organization that uses donations to pay
bail fees in Minneapolis. They did so amid arrests of looters and
rioters who had destroyed the livelihoods of businesses struggling to
reopen after the coronavirus lockdowns. Neither Biden nor his team is in
any way responsible for the rioting and looting, but this move to help
the looters and rioters is gravely disturbing.
In such times, Trump’s call for law and order should not be
considered political. The defense of private property and business
owners’ livelihoods should not be a partisan issue.
Yet de Blasio rushed to blame Trump for the “uptick in hatred and division” behind the riots.
Ironically, the very leftists who might cheer that accusation turned on
de Blasio on Sunday morning. On Saturday, two NYPD vehicles drove into a
crowd of rioters who were violently attacking the vehicles.
When a reporter asked him about the video during a press conference,
de Blasio said “it’s inappropriate for protesters to surround a police
vehicle and threaten police officers. It’s wrong on its face.” He argued
that “a different element has come into play here who are trying to
hurt police officers and trying to damage their vehicles. And if a
police officer’s in that situation, they have to get out of that
situation.”
“The video was upsetting, and I wish the officers hadn’t done that.
But I also understood that they didn’t start the situation,” he said.
“In a situation like that … I’m not gonna blame officers who were trying
to deal with an absolutely impossible situation.”
He
later said on NY1,
“If those protesters had just gotten out of the way, and not created an
attempt to surround that vehicle we would not be talking about this
situation.”
The Bernie Sanders group People for Bernie called on de Blasio to resign.
New York Times contributing op-ed writer Wajahat Ali also called for his resignation.
In less than a day, de Blasio alienated conservatives by shamefully attempting to blame the riots on Trump and he alienated everyone else by defending police for driving into the rioters.
__________
De Blasio has backtracked some what
By Howie Katz
Now de Blasio says: “Many of us have seen the video involving two NYPD vehicles and a crowd of protesters. I didn’t like what I saw one bit. I did not want to ever see something
like that, I don't ever want to see it again. And clearly, we need to do
a full investigation and look into the actions of those officers to see
what was done, why it was done and what could be done differently. But I also want to emphasize
that the situation was created by a group of protesters blocking and
surrounding the police vehicle, a tactic that we have seen before in the
last few days, a tactic that can be very, very dangerous for all
involved."
Meanwhile Gov. Cuomo called the action of the police cars driving into the crowd “truly disturbing” and “inexplicable”, and called on the attorney general to investigate the incident.
And AOC blasted de Blasio's statement blaming the protesters as "unacceptable" and "wrong".
