NY mayor calls for halt to police protests

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio called for a temporary halt to protests over police conduct as he faced a widening rift with a force preparing Christmas time burials for two of its own and decrying the demonstrations as a factor in the officers’ cold-blooded executions.

“I think it’s important that, regardless of people’s viewpoints, that everyone step back,” de Blasio said in a speech yesterday at the Police Athletic League. “I think it’s a time for everyone to put aside political debates, put aside protests, put aside all of the things that we will talk about in all due time.”

De Blasio’s relations with the city’s police unions have tumbled to anew low in the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting in which the gunman claimed was retaliation for the deaths of black men at the hands of white police.