NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Blames Protesters After Police Vans Plow Through Crowd
Responding to videos showing two police vans plowing into a crowd of protesters in Brooklyn on Saturday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the demonstrators — and not police — had behaved inappropriately and bore the brunt of the blame for the incident.
The footage “is upsetting, and I wish the officers hadn’t done that,” de Blasio said during a press conference Saturday night as protests raged in New York and dozens of other cities nationwide in response to the police killing of George Floyd. “But I also understood that they didn’t start this situation. The situation was started by a group of protesters converging on a police vehicle, attacking that vehicle.”
Videos of the incident, which was shared widely on social media, show a New York City Police Department van in the middle of a road, a barricade in front of it. A crowd of demonstrators stands in front of the vehicle, some of whom appear to throw objects at it. One person is seen approaching the vehicle from behind to toss what appears to be a trash bag onto the van, while another person runs up to the driver’s side of the vehicle before dashing away.
Another NYPD van then arrives, driving past the first van straight into a group of demonstrators. The first van is seen then to suddenly accelerate, pushing the barricade into protesters.
Wtf!!! #BlacklivesMaters#brooklynprotestpic.twitter.com/S1oet8JC0x
— Pierre G. (@pgarapon) May 31, 2020
De Blasio said it was “inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers. That’s wrong on its face and that hasn’t happened in the history of protest in this city.”
Videos of the incident do not show people surrounding either van.
The mayor was skewered on social media for mischaracterizing the incident.
The Mayor of New York City just lied to 8 million New Yorkers. pic.twitter.com/4tnJCWyZ51
— rafael shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) May 31, 2020
De Blasio said he wasn’t “going to...
