De Blasio details talk with son about dealing with cops

Shawn Inglima

Mayor de Blasio has instructed his biracial teenage son not to move suddenly or reach for his phone if he's stopped by cops, he said Sunday.

'What parents have done for decades who have children of color, especially young men of color, is train them to be very careful when they have ... an encounter with a police officer,' de Blasio said on ABC's 'This Week.'

The mayor's remarks echoed comments he made earlier after a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict a white cop who killed a black suspect, Eric Garner, with a chokehold.

'It's different for a white child. That's just the reality in this country,' the mayor said.

De Blasio, who is white, gave some details of the conversations he and his wife, Chirlane, who is African-American, have had with 17-year-old Dante.

'With Dante, very early on with my son, we said, look, if a police officer stops you, do everything he tells you to do. Don't move suddenly. Don't reach for your cellphone, because we knew, sadly, there's a greater chance it might be misinterpreted if it was a young man of color,' de Blasio said.

Critics have hit de Blasio's comments about his son, with Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch accusing him of throwing cops 'under the bus' and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani calling the mayor's remarks 'racist.'

But de Blasio said he's just recognizing reality.

'We have to draw police and community together. And you can't achieve that if you're not having a real conversation about what's happening,' he said.

Asked directly by 'This Week' host George Stephanopoulos if the Staten Island grand jury was right or wrong to decline to indict the cop whose chokehold killed Garner, who was allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes, de Blasio would not answer.

Instead, he said he was focused on 'systemic' problems stemming from 'a history of racism' and touted his efforts to retrain every NYPD cop with a three-day program.

'Retraining our police force is going to make a huge difference,' he said.

But Ed Mullins, head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, ripped into de Blasio Sunday, calling his comments 'really hypocritical and moronic.'

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'He has a security detail of New York City police officers assigned to protect his family. And yet he's making statements that his son shouldn't feel safe with New York City cops,' he said on the John Catsimatidis radio show on 970 AM.

'Ultimately if this individual who's in charge of running this city doesn't have faith in his own son being protected by the NYPD, he may want to think about moving out of New York City completely. He just doesn't belong here.'

Mullins also slammed the city's handling of protests since the Garner decision, saying demonstrators are 'running rampant' and blocking streets.

'They're tying up bridges, roadways, storefronts. I see traffic coming to a standstill. The mayor is not representing the people in this city, the drivers that are working, the people that are trying to get home from work,' he said.

Appearing on the same show, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton hit some of the protesters as 'professional agitators,' but said most are peaceful. He said there have been about 250 to 280 arrests in the last two weeks, including several for assaulting cops.

'The restraint (cops) are showing is remarkable. I wish some of the protesters, the professional agitators and the anarchists, would show the same restraint,' he said. 'But the vast majority, the real citizens in the city, they're demonstrating. It's their First Amendment right. They have tied up traffic, but it's New York City. Traffic's tied up all the time.'

He said protests would be allowed to continue as long as they remain nonviolent.