De Blasio's Daughter Among Those Arrested As NYC Mayor Defends NYPD Cruisers Driving Into Protesters

Saturday night protests in New York City resulted in the arrest of 345 people. One of the arrested included 25-year-old Chiara de Blasio, the daughter of Mayor Bill de Blasio, according to sources in the New York Police Department. She was charged with unlawful assembly and given a desk appearance ticket to appear in criminal court to face misdemeanor charges.

The protests were over the death of George Floyd in Minnesota on May 25 at the hands of the police. Other deaths of African Americans killed while being arrested by white police or pursued by private individuals have become an explosive issue, especially when a video taken at the scene points to abusive acts by the cops. In the Minnesota case, the officer, Derek Chauvin, pinned his knee on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes. Floyd can clearly be heard saying “I can’t breathe” on the video.

The protests in the Big Apple began peacefully, but turned violent by the evening. The rioters smashed shop windows, threw objects at officers, torched and battered police vehicles and blocked roads. The mayor put the onus of the violent acts on a small group of well-organized "anarchists."

Another video has surfaced out of the Saturday evening unrest. It showed a police car being pelted by traffic cones and other debris while being blocked by a yellow police barricade held up by several protesters. As the crowd gathered around the vehicle a second police car approached and passed the first car on the right trying to bypass the barricade. As the second police car inched forward through the crowd, the first car lurched ahead about a half a car length, knocking the barrier over and causing several people to fall.

Given the current attitudes toward police, Mayor de Blasio may come to regret his statements made at a late-night press conference and about the incident in particular. He said, “The situation was started by a group of protesters converging on a police vehicle, attacking that vehicle. It’s unacceptable.”

He continued defending the police, “In a situation like that, it’s a very, very tense situation. And imagine what it would be like, you’re just trying to do your job and then you see hundreds of people converging upon you. I’m not gonna blame officers who are trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation.”

The mayor added, “The folks who were converging on that police car did the wrong thing to begin with and they created an untenable situation. I wish the officers had found a different approach. But let’s begin at the beginning. The protesters in that video did the wrong thing to surround them, surround that police car, period.”

At a news conference later Sunday morning, de Blasio had a more measured response, “I didn’t like what I saw one bit. I never want to see something like that. I don’t want to see anything like that again. We need to do a full investigation and look at the actions of those officers and see what was done, why it was done, how it could’ve been done differently.”

By Sunday, the expected calls and Twitter messages asking for de Blasio’s resignation were trending. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said via Twitter the mayor’s comments were unacceptable but stopped short of asking him to step down.

She said, “As mayor, this police department is under your leadership. This moment demands leadership and accountability from each of us. Defending and making excuses for NYPD running SUVs into crowds was wrong. Make it right. De-escalate.”

Almost forgotten in the rioting and its aftermath are the 33 injured police officers who are sworn to protect New Yorkers. Forty seven police vehicles were also damaged, some by organized protesters as Mayor de Blasio suggested.