Al Sharpton and other anti-police agitators have rejected Mayor de Blasio’s call for a moratorium on protests until after the funerals of the two police officers – Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu – who were shot to death in their squad car last Saturday.
That recalcitrance should serve as a heads up that the Rev. Sharpton’s real target is the mayor himself.
Thus, despite the increasingly serious problems for the mayor arising out of the current anti-police protests, Mr. de Blasio apparently will be cut no slack by those who seem to be aiming for a significant role in running the city from the streets and who will do whatever they can to prevent their momentum from ebbing.
This is somewhat surprising, given that several aspects of the mayor’s response to the protesters illustrate why they should view him as a kindred spirit. For one thing, he was not exactly vocal after the Eric Garner episode in his support of the grand jury system, which, as the city’s chief magistrate, he would be expected to fully support.
He also seems never to miss an opportunity to tout the virtues of “peaceful protest” and “civil disobedience” on the part of the protesters. Yet “peaceful protest” has become a euphemism for the obstruction of roads, bridges, and tunnels. And those “peaceful protests” have featured such disgraceful chants as “What Do We Want? Dead Cops. When Do We Want It? Now.”
Champions of civil disobedience feel it is somehow acceptable to break the law to make a point if you are prepared to pay the penalty. Whatever one’s position on that issue, is it really appropriate for the mayor of a city to encourage protesters to break the law? Does “paying the penalty” really make a difference in terms of the governance of the city? Sadly, the encouragement of disrespect for the law is now indelibly identified with this mayor. It cannot be helpful.
In this connection we note that Police Commissioner Bratton has linked the demonstrations to the murders of officers Ramos and Liu. “[I]t’s quite apparent,” he said on NBC’s “Today” show, “quite obvious that the targeting [of] these two police officers was a direct spin-off of this issue of these demonstrations.”
Mayor de Blasio is not even one year into his term. Yet he is facing some defining moments that will determine his future in office. Hopefully he will reconsider his association with those who over the years have shown themselves to be nothing more than rank opportunists.