Will return to normal once de Blasio purges the NYPD.
New York Rep. Peter King says tension between New York City police and the mayor’s office is at a record high.
“The worst I’ve ever seen in all the years I’ve been in New York — and I’m a life-long New Yorker,” the Long Island Republican told MSNBC Wednesday.
Many New York Police Department officers blame Mayor Bill de Blasio for creating an atmosphere of negativity toward them after a grand jury declined to charge an officer in the police chokehold death of Eric Garner on Staten Island.
King said he agrees with officers who have accused de Blasio of turning their backs on them and exacerbating racial tensions in the aftermath of the death of Garner, who was black.
“What went wrong or didn’t go wrong had nothing to do with race,” King said. “And they felt that Mayor de Blasio jumped in and tried to make it a racial issue, or kept it going as a racial issue, saying that cops had to be retrained. You’re talking about the best police department in the country.”