DeBlaz on NYPD unions: that’s what they always say
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio brushed aside scathing comments from the NYPD officers’ and sergeants’ union leaders who slammed officials for not supporting cops and the medical examiner’s office for ruling the death of Eric Garner a homicide. He called the rhetoric par for the course.
“Union leaders will say what union leaders say. That is historic, that’s been going on for decades,” de Blasio said. “We have a job to do. We are going to do our job. I don’t let the rhetoric of union leaders stand in the way of getting the job done.”
De Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton have vowed to retrain all of the city’s cops in how to approach using force and other issues in the wake of Garner’s death, which the medical examiner’s office ruled a homicide caused by the use of a chokehold. Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch slammed that decision as “blatantly political,” at the same time de Blasio praised the office’s work.