New York City’s second-biggest police union has labelled Mayor de Blasio “a phony bastard.”
The cussing is the latest in a stream of vitriol from cop unions since the NYPD earlier this month fired Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner.
“YOU PHONY BASTARD. What happen [sic] to Eric Garner is on YOU & BRATTON, YOUR POLICIES sent the NYPD to arrest Garner for untaxed cigarettes,” the Sergeants Benevolent Association blared on Twitter on Monday, referencing former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
“YOU knew years ago the Feds weren’t prosecuting & WAITED 5 years. Mrs Garner is 100% RIGHT SHE WANTS TO KNOW HOW HIGH, TELL HER THE TRUTH!”
The rant came in response to a de Blasio tweet saying, “We can’t let what happened to Eric Garner happen again. We need federal leadership that mandates the body cameras, de-escalation and implicit bias training that we’ve championed here in New York City.”
YOU PHONY BASTARD. What happen to Eric Garner is on YOU & BRATTON, YOUR POLICIES sent the NYPD to arrest Garner for untaxed cigarettes. YOU knew years ago the Feds weren’t prosecuting & WAITED 5 years. Mrs Garner is 100% RIGHT SHE WANTS TO KNOW HOW HIGH, TELL HER THE TRUTH! https://t.co/PjEoSap1Fl
— SBA (@SBANYPD) August 27, 2019
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SBA boss Ed Mullins on Wednesday doubled down on the “phony bastard” comment.
De Blasio is “basically taking no responsibility for what occurred,” the union boss told the Daily News.
“At what point does the mayor take responsibility for what occurred? At what point does Bratton take responsibility for what occurred?
“So, to me, you’re a phony bastard,” Mullins said of Hizzoner.
Police union leaders have been fuming since Pantaleo was fired and supervisor Sgt. Kizzy Adonis, the officer who arrived to take charge of the scene, was hit with departmental charges.
“The NYPD is falling apart at the seams,” SBA President Ed Mullins declared at an Aug. 22 press conference about Adonis, who lost 20 vacation days as punishment.
De Blasio decried the harsh rhetoric from police union leaders during a media appearance Tuesday.
“It has been too many times when leaders of police unions did not serve their members because they sent a message that was not about how we heal, not about how we move forward, but it [is] ultimately a very divisive message,” he said on “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.”
Recent remarks from Mullins demanding NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill’s resignation prompted the city’s top cop to call the union boss a “keyboard gangster.”
Mullins previously apologized to union members for some of his social media activity, saying he had posted a racist video without being aware of its full contents.
He told The News it may have been possible to use nicer words than “phony bastard” to describe the mayor, but added the phrase had the virtue of getting people to talk about his issues with de Blasio.
The SBA’s latest Twitter tirade showed no signs of abating Wednesday, when the account tweeted, “Mayor DeBlasio YOU are not part of the WE.
“YOU are NOT NYPD NEVER were, NEVER will be. NYPD members wearing a uniform DO NOT STAND with YOU. They stand for something GREATER, have HIGHER IDEALS & SACRIFICE more in a day than YOU have in life. You’re OUT.”