New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been doing his best to convince the George Floyd protesters that he is on their side. He said he was “proud” when his daughter was arrested along with the protesters. He offered lame excuses as to why the protests were being allowed to occur while church services were not. But the protesters are apparently still not having it.
According to a Fox News report, when de Blasio attempted to speak at a memorial for George Floyd on Thursday night, he was met by a loud chorus of boos, prompting the speaker who introduced him to chastise the crowd for not showing appropriate respect.
The crowd eventually quieted and chanted “respect” after much prompting, but after de Blasio began speaking, the chants changed to “resign.” They got so loud that it became difficult to even hear de Blasio speak over the chants.
As if to underline the point that they did not respect the mayor, the crowd then progressed to chanting “turn your backs,” and many in the crowd then turned around and refused to face de Blasio during his address.
De Blasio’s handling of the protests has been the subject of intense criticism among New Yorkers. On Tuesday, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called de Blasio’s handling of the protests a “disgrace,” and further stated his belief that de Blasio “underestimated the scope of the problem” and should have had more police officers in the streets to stop looting and destruction of property. He also threatened to “displace” de Blasio as mayor entirely and bring in the National Guard if the violence continued.
“Can you displace a mayor? Yes, a mayor can be removed. It has not happened. I cannot find a precedent. But theoretically it is legally possible. It is a bizarre thing to try to do in this situation. I think it would only make a bad situation worse. Also, I don’t think it’s necessary,” Cuomo said.