york police benevolent society, that angered so many cops in new york in the aftermath of the eric garner death? well, a couple of things. the mayor has supported the police both materially and verbally in the ways that newt just asked him to do. he has disavowed violence and disruption in the city. he s been criticized, in particular, by some of the police unions for his speech in a staten island church after the grand jury decision in which he talked about his bi-racial son dante needing to be careful, wary in his potential encounters with police officers. in that poll you showed, reverend butts, really gets to the heart of the matter here. the police for all their good work? driving down crime over the past decade or longer, now many of them feel that they are being blamed. they are the ones being held responsible by a lot of people
they should be very, very, very careful because we do know that there are copycats out here and we do know that these men and women s lives are at risk. so we have to decry that rhetoric whenever we hear it, we have to stand up against it but we know it s out there and, in this country, we have to make sure that we have the kind of leadership that will not be swayed by those who seek only to make political hate or progress their own particular agenda. pastor calvin butts, stand by. we re going to hear what the mayor has to say right now. while the d.a. returns to his seat, i want to start by thanking all of you for supporting our police, for
york, he s been an inspiration over the years to many people. but he wasn t complimentary of the mayor of new york. this is reverend butts. i m disappointed when i called the mayor s office to set up a meeting between several leading clergy persons in this city and several prominent businesspersons, the mayor did not reach back. this indicates that he is slightly out of touch. he s getting bad advice and as a resu result, the tension between the police and the community is heightened. it is, i think, a direct result of leadership. those are pretty strong words from reverend butts. very strong words. but i ll note that at this point where tensions are so high, now s the time to draw deeply upon the reservoir of trust, community capital, there are people across new york, ministers, priests, rabbis,
the work you do is a message to all of us there s the mayor of new york city. mayor de blasio making a very heartfelt statement expressing his deepest condolences to the families of these two police officers who were so brutally gunned down as they sat in their patrol car in brooklyn. i want to get some quick reaction. reverend calvin butts is join us. he s the pastor of a baptist church in new york. what did you think, reverend? i thought it was correct to express our concern, love and support for the families of the police officers. but certainly this was not a barack obama speech. to say we are to stop protesting really does not touch on the fact that not only are the families of the police officers grieving, the family of eric garner is grieving and the
importantly, wolf, in the lack of spirit among the rank and file police officers. that s a crisis of leadership. wolf, if i could go ahead. chris smith is still with us. reverend butts, stand by, tom fuentes, chris smith has covered these stories for a long time. go ahead, chris. i know you know this, i know the reverend knows it. just to be explicit, we talk about the cops. the new york police department is 30,000 men and women. it s important to distinguish between the words and the rage of the head of the police benevolent association and a larger maybe majority groups of cops who have anger, not necessarily directly from these shootings i mean, they are certainly sad and upset about