The ‘I Don’t Care’ Mayor
Confronted by The Post with proof that an NYPD e-mail he and his spokesman repeatedly insisted didn’t exist actually does, Mayor de Blasio responded true to form: “Read my lips. I don’t care.” He can’t be bothered with the facts — especially if they contradict his party line.
The Post first reported online Sunday that an e-mail directive had ordered police to sweep the homeless from two Brooklyn stations as part of a staged media event featuring de Blasio riding a subway.
Both the mayor and spokesman Eric Phillips called the report a lie — and suggested the order didn’t even exist.
So we published it Wednesday, with the names of the issuing officers and other identifying information. Yet de Blasio and Phillips said they saw no need to check it out.
It’s a fabrication, they claimed. Or, if it real, it was only a suggestion that was never acted on. And never mind the unusual absence of homeless people in those stations that day.
After all, said de Blasio, “there’s no sweeps” and he should know — because “I ride the subways all the time.”
Ha! This from the mayor who up until a week ago refused all suggestions he actually
start riding the subway, snidely dismissing the idea as “cheap symbolism.”
And he got a useless boost from the propagandists at the Daily News, who quoted an unnamed police official denying our story — but then sheepishly admitted that the mayor’s stops are always checked for security issues and “it’s possible the homeless were mentioned.”
As for the mayor, he constantly goes fullblown Sean Spicer whenever he’s exposed as less than a truth-teller.
He creates his own facts, refuses to answer reporters’ questions — and bashes them with his “fake news” accusations. He blocks freedom-of-information requests, stonewalls investigations and claims he has “no idea” how his fat-cat donors always get strings pulled for them at City Hall.
So the next time Bill de Blasio suggests certain news organizations are “not factually based,” he should take a long, hard look in the mirror.
And he might start caring about doing his job — because New Yorkers certainly do.