Mayor Bill de Blasio Gets Down to the Heart of the Riots: It's Donald Trump's Fault

AP featured image — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at the USTA Indoor Training Center where a temporary hospital will be built, Tuesday, March 31, 2020, in New York. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

So the country’s going up in smoke here and there, and who’s fault is it?

For those of you who’ve got nothin’, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is on the scene with a bit of available perspective.

At a press conference Saturday, the city executive who recently early-released prisoners from Rikers Island in the name of public health fingered a culprit in America’s current state of unrest — or, as CBSN called it, “demonstrations.”

Ladies and gentlemen, he can tell you this:

“I can tell you this, and this is the blunt truth: The President of the United States helped to create this atmosphere, and that’s the tragedy here.”

Is that really the tragedy here?

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio on protests: “This is the blunt truth. The president of the United States helped to create this atmosphere” https://t.co/0x8tHbwS8f pic.twitter.com/p58fI7Y2Zf

— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 30, 2020

“It doesn’t matter what your party affiliation is, doesn’t matter what you think of President Trump, there’s been an uptick in tension and hatred and division since he came along. It’s just a fact.”.

So that’s the mayor’s message for New York — and, I guess, the protestors?

But just so you know, he wasn’t talking about anything in particular:

“And it’s not the reason for any specific act, but it has helped to poison the atmosphere. So, we gotta get back to leaders talking about unity.”

He’s certainly not wrong about unity.

In fact, here’s an example of the opposite of unity: everything he just said.

Bill had more words:

“We always talk about respect for peaceful protest, respect for communities, respect for different points of view, and obviously that’s not been the tone set from the top in Washington, and that’s one of the reasons we’re in this mess we’re in.”

To be clear, I don’t believe Trump is a herder of all people; he certainly takes a distinct position. So does in everyone in politics. In fact, I’d say that American politics, by its very nature, is the opposite of unity. It’s an arena where everyone can have their own perspective.

Well, except maybe this guy (Beware the language):

Someone just showed up in a red hat @wis10 pic.twitter.com/YTMs2YHFqi

— Miranda Parnell WIS (@miranda_parnell) May 30, 2020

To disagree isn’t inherently detrimental to togetherness. I know, because I seem to remember a world where that was true.

Somehow, we no longer appear to be living in it.

And in this current one, as reported by The Daily Wire, over 340 people were arrested in the Big Apple Saturday evening.

In the late-night address, Bill turned his attention to a viral video of police driving into a crowd as people pelted it with water bottles and other objects:

“The video was upsetting, and I wish the officers hadn’t done that. But I also understood that they didn’t start the situation. The situation was started by a group of protesters converging on a police vehicle, attacking that vehicle.”

NYPD officers just drove an SUV into a crowd of human beings. They could‘ve killed them, &we don’t know how many they injured.

NO ONE gets to slam an SUV through a crowd of human beings.@NYCMayor these officers need to be brought to justice, not dismissed w/“internal reviews.” https://t.co/oIaBShSC1S

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 31, 2020

He continued:

“It’s unacceptable. It’s inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers. That’s wrong on its face.”

“A different element has come into play here,” he observed. “Trying to hurt police officers and trying to damage their vehicles — if a police officer is in that situation, they have to get out of that situation.”

The mayor went on to tell those who protest in peace they’re being listened to.