DEAR MAYOR, YOU STINK
LETTERS FROM STAFFERS & POLS RIP BLAZ ON PROTEST FALLOUT
Mayor de Blasio claimed Wednesday the city had taken “a step forward” during the sixth night of protests and looting, but his critics kept piling on, with some suggesting he should resign.
De Blasio’s hopeful observation, made at his daily press briefing, came as city and state lawmakers said privately he should step down and as more than 200 current and former City Hall staffers publicly rebuked him in a formal letter.
“Last night, we took a step forward in moving out of this difficult period,” de Blasio said. “We saw a very, very different picture around New York City last night.”
Police officers arrested about 280 people Tuesday night — far fewer then the 700 arrests the NYPD made Monday — but the breakdown came as video of Tuesday night’s looting sprees continued to circulate widely online.
“The guy is on very precarious ground,” said state Sen. John Liu (D-Queens). “He lost control of the city and his own police force and he’s lost his mind with the curfew.”
Liu was so angered by de Blasio’s mixed response to the Police Department’s use of force Friday that he drafted a letter calling on the mayor to resign.
But he told the Daily News he held off on sending the letter after de Blasio took a harder line Sunday against instances of excessive NYPD force.
Liu likened the mayor’s decision to implement a curfew as “trying to put out a fire by dousing gasoline” on it.
The mayor didn’t fare much better on the political home front either.
In an open letter, 236 City Hall staffers railed against de Blasio’s handling of the protests and outlined a series of demands regarding future NYPD policies.
“Our time in the mayor’s office showed us that the change we had hoped for, and fought for, might never come,” the letter states. “We could not remain silent while the administration we served allows the NYPD to turn our city into occupied territory. Our former boss might not hear the cries for justice from black and brown New Yorkers, but we do.”
Christopher Collins-McNeil, who previously worked in the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, told The News he helped gather signatures for the letter — which described the city’s criminal justice system as “racist” — because de Blasio hasn’t delivered on his promise of heightened police accountability.
The letter calls out the mayor for failing to quickly fire Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who placed Eric Garner in a deadly chokehold in 2014; letting the NYPD’s budget balloon even as crime has dropped, and refusing to end the use of solitary confinement in city jails.
The tipping point for staffers came when the mayor strongly defended aggressive policing during protests over the weekend.
“He’s failed at step after step, juncture after juncture since the beginning,” CollinsMcNeil said.
The letter’s demands include slashing the NYPD budget, firing police officers who’ve used excessive force and the creation of an inde
pendent commission to investigate the mayor and NYPD’s response to the protests.
Liu and Collins-McNeil are hardly the only ones deeply disappointed with de Blasio’s handling of civil unrest over the death of George Floyd, a black man, who died while a white Minneapolis police officer held him down for more than eight minutes.
Their collective displeasure comes as protesters have chanted for de Blasio to resign and as Gov. Cuomo openly mused about removing the mayor Tuesday.
“I am not confident in his skills,” City Councilwoman Alicka Ampry-Samuel said of the mayor. “I am not confident in his leadership.”
Ampry-Samuel (D-Brooklyn) stopped just short of calling on de Blasio to step down, but said she was frustrated when he failed to heed her call to do something about Deputy Inspector Craig Edelman in the 73rd Precinct.
On Memorial Day weekend, she said she called the mayor about an incident she witnessed in which several officers under Edelman’s command stopped and frisked a man for holding a joint.
“I said, ‘There’s no reason for the level of aggression,’ ” she recalled. “He said, ‘They have to learn to respect us.’ Deputy Inspector Craig Edelman said that to me.”
Ampry-Samuel said she called de Blasio about the incident and his response was that Police Commissioner Dermot Shea had “talked” to Edelman.
About a week later, a subordinate of Edelman, Vincent D’Andraia, was caught on video throwing a woman to the ground at a protest as Edelman looks on, Ampry-Samuel said.
All of it, she said, has left her feeling that there is a leadership void that needs to be filled.
“If I had to vote today, it might be a vote of no confidence,” she said.
But the mayor isn’t only taking flak from those concerned about heavy-handed policing. Councilman Robert Holden, a moderate Queens Democrat, disagrees with the mayor’s decision against calling in the National Guard to quell rioting.
“I would call on de Blasio to resign, but I don’t think we have anybody waiting in the wings who’s capable,” he said. “We’re stuck with him.”
If de Blasio were to resign — which critics concede is unlikely — Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would assume control of the city until a special election is held.
Other elected officials, while displeased with the mayor, think calling for his resignation is a step too far. One Council member, who asked not to be identified, said it would destabilize an already-precarious situation.
Another, Councilman Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx), opposes it as well.
“He was voted in,” he said. “We have to respect democracy. Next year, we have an election.”
De Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein did not respond to any of the suggestions that her boss should resign. But she defended his record, ticking off a list of criminal justice accomplishments.
“He has worked hand-inhand with reformers to fundamentally change policing in this city and end the era of mass incarceration,” she said in a statement. “And we’re not done.”