Mayor Bill de Blasio was shouted down with boos and shouts of “F— you, de Blasio” when he tried to take the podium at a George Floyd protest in Brooklyn on Thursday.
“F— the mayor’s curfew!” some shouted. “Turn your back! Turn your back!” others shouted. Many in the crowd did turn their backs.
“Shut the f— up!” protesters shouted.
The heckling was so intense, the mayor kept his remarks under five minutes, and then was no longer seen on the stage.
“Black lives matter in New York,” the mayor attempted to say at the protest at Cadman Plaza at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge.
“Not to you!” one heckler shouted.
The Rev. Kevin McCall, one of the organizers of the memorial, tried calm the crowd, to no avail.
Hizzoner stepped down from the podium after telling the angry crowd, “George Floyd could not have died in vain” and “We will not be about words in this city; we will be about change.”
He added, “We will make peaceful change in this city.”
The crowd turning their backs on de Blasio comes after police have repeatedly turned their backs on the mayor at funerals for slain officers.
