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Bill de Blasio's NYPD Security Detail Includes No White Officers: Sources

By Murray Weiss | September 17, 2013 10:53am
 Public Advocate Bill de Blasio in August 2013, several weeks before the Sept. 10 Democratic primary.
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio in August 2013, several weeks before the Sept. 10 Democratic primary.
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Mario Tama/Getty Images

NEW YORK — The NYPD security detail pulled together late last week to protect Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio includes 10 detectives — none of whom are white, sources tell "On the Inside."

De Blasio agreed to take round-the-clock NYPD protection last week for the first time since he dumped his detail shortly after becoming public advocate — but his new complement of protectors is no Rainbow Coalition, sources said.

Sources say top NYPD brass scoured the ranks of the Intelligence Division’s minority officers last Thursday night.  By the following morning, they had selected a 10-member team led by an Hispanic lieutenant overseeing seven detectives and two cops already on security details at City Hall.

The detail is composed of seven African-Americans and three Hispanics in what many see as no coincidence for the candidate who has campaigned vigorously against the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactic and attracted widespread support in minority communities.

“It’s pretty hard to not have a white detective considering they make up the overwhelming majority of detectives and officers in the NYPD's Intelligence Division security pool,” one veteran said.

By comparison, Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota has at least two white detectives assigned to his detail, sources said.

Sources could not say whether the all-minority detail was requested. The NYPD did not immediately respond to a telephone inquiry seeking comment. De Blasio's spokesman declined to comment.

De Blasio, who has made his interracial family the centerpiece of his campaign, is married to an African-American woman, Chirlane McCray, with whom he has two children — a daughter, Chiara, and a son, Dante, whose afro quickly became the toast of the campaign.

On Monday, de Blasio’s chief rival Bill Thompson suddenly pulled out of the race and threw his support behind de Blasio after the Board of Election's initial voting machine manual counts showed no appreciable dent in de Blasio’s lead.