Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his trip to Germany last week and accused critics of politicizing the death of Police Officer Miosotis Familia, who was murdered a day before the mayor announced that he would travel to Hamburg to protest the G-20 summit.
“The focus should be on the families, the focus should be on supporting our police officers at a time of grief,” de Blasio said Monday during his weekly appearance on NY1’s Road to City Hall. “What some other people are doing is an attempt to politicize — we should not ever mistake that.”
Ed Mullins, president of the NYPD's sergeants union, said this weekend that de Blasio failed to show “any kind of leadership" in light of the officer's murder.
“When Ed Mullins paints a negative, dire picture, that’s never a surprise and I always say there is a huge difference between the rank and file and the union leadership,” de Blasio said. “You have a family going through a crisis. It’s bluntly an effort to take advantage of the moment for political reasons.”
Other police union leaders have echoed Mullins’ comments. Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch said Monday that de Blasio’s “compass” had failed him by directing to Germany instead of keeping him at home to stand by grieving police officers.
De Blasio critics have seized on the mayor’s travel to Germany as an example of what they say is his disinterest in running the city. The trip has provided fodder for presumptive Republican challenger Nicole Malliotakis, who pointed to the trip as evidence that the mayor is interested only in raising his national profile.
The mayor dismissed that criticism on Monday’s television appearance, saying his decision to travel was spurred by what he sees as a need for local elected officials to counter President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“This was a major international gathering, the most important leaders in the world were there,” de Blasio said, pushing back against the idea that he has frequently traveled overseas. Since his election in 2013 de Blasio has traveled twice to Italy (once on vacation), Israel and London before last week's trip to Germany.
“I have not done a lot of travel overseas but this was a particularly meaningful moment, and bluntly what a lot of people wanted to know was that the cities in America and the states in America were not going to follow along with President Trump on issues like climate change,” de Blasio said. “For me it’s been a few trips, it’s been limited and it will continue to be limited.”
The union criticism is reminiscent of the long, public and ugly fight that followed the murders of Police Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn during de Blasio’s first year in office. Thousands of officers turned their backs on the mayor as he spoke at the funeral.
De Blasio attended Familia’s wake on Monday and is expected to attend the funeral on Tuesday.