Naturally.
NY Mayor Bill de Blasio and his lesbian wife Chirlane McCray at a Halloween celebration at Gracie Mansion. Photo credit Robert Mecea
Via NY Post: Mayor de Blasio and wife Chirlane McCray called the Black Lives Matter movement a “force for good” that has changed the “national discussion,” as the pair defended the group on Monday from criticisms by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who blasted it as too intent on protesting against cops rather than engaging in productive dialog.
“We have a different perspective (than Bratton),” McCray told CNN’s “New Day.” “Black Lives Matter is a force for good. It’s about peaceful protests. It’s about shining a light on the problems that we have in race relations across this country. We’ve had a history of it. And it has not gone away, but we haven’t had enough positive action taken on making change. And I am very encouraged by the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Mayor de Blasio walked a finer line, backing his top cop while also showing respect for BLM. “I appreciate the fact that he’s [Bratton] saying that we have vast majority of police officers doing their job. We have some who don’t belong in the profession like every profession,” de Blasio said. “I think what the protesters are doing is really about the few who don’t belong.”
As a whole, de Blasio said BLM has set a good agenda for debate. “I think that movement, just the very phrase `Black Lives Matter,’ has changed the national discussion. Now, as with any movement, there’s some people I don’t agree with, but I have to tell you, they’ve changed the national discussion for the better,” the mayor said.
“They did stop and have a moment of silence when they protested in New York for the officers lost in Dallas. Just like the officers in Dallas, when bullets were raining down on them, their first impulse was to protect the protesters. So we’ve got to find these examples of hope and possibility here, and that movement has discussion forward.”
CNN asked de Blasio to comment on network columnist Charles Blow, who said in a Facebook Live commentary that white Americans have to come to grips with the racism faced daily by minorities. “He’s right in the sense that white America doesn’t understand the extent of the problem,” the mayor said.
“As I said, and we know it from our own son, when the most law-abiding, hard-working young man you could imagine, but he has to worry. We’ve got to overcome that. How do we make a society whole? We make a society whole by everyone having a common standard. We value all our young people.”
Bratton on Sunday said Black Lives Matter “is primarily focused on police and their efforts to portray police and the police profession in a very negative way, which is unfortunate.”
DCG
