New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for calm amid a back-and-forth of finger-pointing between activists, police leaders and elected officials following the execution-style murder of two New York City police officers this weekend.
Cuomo called for a “societal deep breath” and a “cooling off period” this week in a radio interview Monday on New York’s WNYC, calling the heated, inflammatory rhetoric that engulfed the city this weekend unproductive.
“Sometimes with high emotion you stop hearing and processing. And I think that’s where we are now. It’s not productive, it’s potentially destructive,” Cuomo said. “People have strong feelings. I understand that, I respect that, but I ask people to join me to bring a period of calm this week.”
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani tied the police murders to “intense, anti-police hatred” among leaders and activists reacting to the non-indictment of two white police officers who killed two unarmed black men in separate instances this summer. And the leader of the city’s largest police union directly blamed New York Mayor Bill de Blasio for the murders, saying the officers’ blood is “on many hands,” starting “on the steps of City Hall in the office of the mayor.”
When asked if de Blasio had the governor’s full support, Cuomo said the mayor, union leaders and community activists have his “full support.” Cuomo insisted several times he would not get dragged into the divisive business of assigning blame to anyone.
“I think that is the negative cycle that we are in. I don’t want to point fingers, I don’t want to cast blame,” Cuomo said. “I think Mayor de Blasio is doing the best he can under very difficult circumstances to hear all sides of the matter. You have polarization in this city and that’s the fundamental issue. You have two different points of view that right now are seemingly irreconcilable.”
Cuomo said he was interested in starting a dialogue on reforms to address both Eric Garner’s killing by a police officer this summer and the murder of the two police officers this weekend, but only after a “cooling off period.”
Those reforms would build off of concerns he said he’s heard that range from grand jury secrecy to survivors’ benefits for police officers and whether police car windows should be bulletproof.
Cuomo also said the grand jury decision in Garner’s chokehold death at the hands of a police officers “was seemingly wholly incongruous with what you saw in that video.” Garner’s death was captured on camera, and Garner can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” in the video.
Cuomo added that “there are legitimate points” in Garner’s case.