Mayor Bill de Blasio lost his cool during a press conference in New York City this afternoon, blasting the media for dividing the people of New York.
“What are you guys going to do? Are you going to keep dividing us?” de Blasio fired back to a reporter questioning his next move on violent incidents in the city.
De Blasio pointed to the majority of “peaceful” and “respectful” protests in the city that call for police enforcement fairness, and praised the New York City Police Department for keeping them safe.
He lectured the media for highlighting the “few” protesters in the city who were saying angry, hateful things and physically attacking police officers.
“The few who want conflict attempt that, and unfortunately, so many times you guys enable that,” he said, calling for the media to cover stories about good protesters and good police officers.
As the reporter began responding to the mayor, de Blasio interrupted angrily.
“That’s how you want to portray the world, but we know a different reality,” he said. “There are some people who do that – it’s wrong, it’s wrong, they shouldn’t do that, it’s immoral, it’s wrong, it’s nasty, it’s negative, they should not do that, but they, my friend are not the majority, stop portraying them as the majority.”
During his remarks, De Blasio clarified to members of the media that he “wasn’t talking about every single one” of the reporters gathered at his news conference.