NEW YORK (AP) – As the New York Police Department mourns two of their own, Mayor Bill de Blasio pleaded for a pause in protests and rancor amid a widening rift with those in a grieving force who accuse him of creating a climate of mistrust that contributed to the execution of two officers.
De Blasio called Monday for a halt of political statements until the after funerals of the slain officers, an appeal to both sides in a roiling dispute centered on the deaths of black men at the hands of white police officers.
“We are in a very difficult moment. Our focus has to be on these families,” de Blasio said Monday at police headquarters. “I think it’s a time for everyone to put aside political debates, put aside protests, put aside all of the things that we will talk about in all due time.”
By JONATHAN LEMIRE and COLLEEN LONG -AP
