Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio discussed the new $88 billion city budget in the wake of George Floyd’s death while in Minneapolis police custody that includes significant changes to the New York Police Department.
De Blasio emphasized the “profound change” that would be taking place in New York City to help create a “safer city in the future.” The mayor also outlined that some of the funding being taken from the police would go to youth initiatives, and a portion will go to painting “Black Lives Matter” in front of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue to send a “clear” message to President Donald Trump.
“We’re going to take this moment in history and amplify it by taking the ‘Black Lives Matter’ symbolism and putting it all over this city, including right in front of Trump Tower,” he advised.
MSNBC’s Willie Geist asked de Blasio if he was officially saying he was going to paint the message in front of Trump Tower.
“Yes, we are,” de Blasio replied. “It’s an important message to the nation, and, obviously, we want the president to hear it because he has never shown respect for those three words. When he hears ‘black lives matter,’ he presents a horrible, negative reality of something that doesn’t exist and he misses the underlying meaning that we’re saying we have to honor the role of African-Americans in our history and in our society, very much what you were talking about a few moments ago. We have to make it come alive today. So, we’re going to make it very clear to the president. It’s going to be right outside his doorstep.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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