Sometimes people are just too dense to understand their own wrong headedness.
Case in point - NewYork City Mayor Bill De Blasio. At his press conference yesterday he decried the back turning by Police Officers when he spoke at the funerals for assassinated officers Liu and Ramos as disrespectful to the families of the officers.
This is called deflection, and at is at its highest form. The silent protest by the rank and file was not directed at the families but at the Mayor himself. It was a strong message in rebuttal for his statements following the Michael Brown and Eric Garner incidents, claiming that the police were the problem and fostering the racially tense confrontations that followed them. He cannot put those comments to rest quickly enough and his continued deflection just exacerbates the boiling cauldron of emotions between himself and the department. The presence of the thousands of uniformed and plain clothed officers not only from NYC but across the country at the requiems was a very visible outward sign of their total respect and caring for brother and sister officers and their families. Their actions, in both cases, were silent, impressive and pointed. Silent and strong support by their attendance and again a silent and strong protest aimed exclusively at the Mayor. No chants, no street blockages, no violence, just shoulder to shoulder solidarity.
When protesters were in the streets of New York blocking bridges and major roads shouting, “What do we want? – Dead Cops – When do we want them? – Now” Mr. De Blasio stood by virtually silent and now he has the hubris to call the cops disrespectful.
The two can not be conflated or even compared. To try and cast the officers as less because they chose to show the Mayor their sentiments is just childish. This is a tactic we often see coming from the progressives. If you challenge policy or statements of the left you are somehow “racist” or “bigoted” or “right wing” and now you can add disrespectful. It matters not if the challenge is valid and forthright
Mr. De Blasio campaigned and won election on the grounds that he was a true progressive and would advance that admittedly left agenda on the City of New York. So now that he has so totally exposed the depths of his leanings he must resort to skewering others when they object. Thin skinned seems to be a character trait for such persons. It takes a “How dare you oppose me” stance no matter the topic or situation. Mr. De Blasio has dug this whole so deep I don’t believe that the standard procedure of casting stones at the opposition will get him very far.
He cannot hide from his own words, positions, personal associations or agenda. New York City residents will ultimately pay for having a Mayor that is so far out of step.