Watch the video below of an exchange between Veteran Hamodia reporter Reuvain Borchardt and Socalist NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio.

This took place at Friday’s press conference:

RB: A couple of days ago, several of your police officers were attacked, including your Chief of Department. For the first 24 hours, you did not issue a public statement or a tweet. It was only 24 hours after the attack when a reporter asked you about it, that you condemned the attack. During that time, you found time to make 11 tweets about police reform. So why did you not respond within 24 hours publicly, and how should that be interpreted by all New Yorkers, from cops to criminals?

Mayor: Reuvain, look, again, your questions always have a particular bias to them – God bless you, but let’s be clear about the facts. Over the weekend we saw something like this and I condemned it. We don’t accept any attacks on police officers. I’ve said it so many times and I mean it, and I want everyone to understand that – it’s just literally unacceptable in a free society: You cannot attack the people who serve and protect us. I’ve said it many, many times in many circumstances, if you’d like a long list, we’ll get you one, Reuvain. Sometimes, I’ll be the first to say, we should overemphasize that message. I’m perfectly comfortable saying we should have, again, I work with a big team here – we were doing a lot of different things – we should have put that message out sooner. But anyone who’s been listening knows I say it constantly, and I want to get to the day where I don’t have to say it because people respect our police officers and don’t ever even think of attacking them. And what I’m trying to build is a city where there’s mutual respect between police and community, so that we change the environment for the better. I have seen real progress with neighborhood policing. I’m not going to let anything about this multiple crisis of the coronavirus – the worst healthcare crisis in this century, the worst economic crisis in 90 years, a social justice crisis, a disparity crisis, an employment crisis, a fiscal crisis. This is all happening simultaneously. It’s never happened before in the city’s history. I’m not going to let that make it impossible for me to see that for six full years, we implemented neighborhood policing and moved this city forward, and we will continue that work and resume that work no matter what, and that’s the way forward.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)