De Blasio, Bratton Offer Different Views On the Black Lives Matter Movement

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton offer a unified front when it comes to police policy. But the leaders part company when it comes to how they see police and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The difference was clear at a news conference they held at One Police Plaza Monday to talk about the city’s s crime statistics for the first half of 2016, which are on pace to equal last year's historic lows.

De Blasio started things off by stressing how closely the two work together. Then he offered his assessment of the movement which has organized protests across the country in response to the deaths of African-Americans after encounters with police.

“I look at it as a broader positive movement with some individuals around it who have done the wrong thing,” said de Blasio. “But if this is part of sparking the dialogue we've needed to have for a long time, that's good thing.”

Seated next to the mayor at the crime stat briefing, Bratton struck a different tone.

“I have no concerns at all with Black Lives Matter, the name of the organization or the focus on the concerns of blacks,” said Bratton. He then read a prepared statement, saying he didn't want to speak extemporaneously about these issues.

“The germ that allows racism to grow is the stereotype,” Bratton read. He continued, “the painting with a wide brush against a race, a color or a religion. When you have protesters who are claiming police are racists, all police are racists or that cops are cold-blooded killers, you have the same construct.”

He said the deaths of police officers in New York and Dallas are connected to this type of thinking.

“This kind of poison talk, calling police as a profession murders or racists, are the kind of generalizations that spew hate, not solutions,” said Bratton. “We saw that in New York in 2014 with the murder of my two detectives and we saw it last week with the murder of five police officers in Dallas.”

Bratton said dialogue is the only way forward, and the mayor agreed — even if it takes more protests to get there.