HARLEM — Police officers are under orders to patrol New York streets in pairs and authorities will closely monitor protests in the wake of the deadly shooting of several officers in Dallas, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton said Friday.
"What a painful day for this country," de Blasio said on the Brian Lehrer Show. "This week has been so difficult in so many ways, but an attack on our police is an attack on all of us. It's fundamentally unacceptable. It undermines our entire democratic society."
The mayor's remarks come in the wake of Thursday's shooting of 12 police officers during a peaceful protest of fatal police shootings of two black men, Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Five Dallas officers were killed.
"We'll be taking a number of precautions to keep our officers safe," de Blasio said. "All our officers have been instructed to go on two officer patrol, not to be solo today. We will have a very large presence at any protests that are planned to really make sure things are very well controlled."
At a later press conference at One Police Plaza, Bratton said that unarmed auxiliary officers were also being pulled off the street until police could determine if there are any ongoing threats following the Dallas shootings.
The mayor said there are no indications of any threats against police in New York City. Police officials said they were investigating 17 threats against New York City police made on social media or via telephone but that none seemed serious.
Bratton said the NYPD was also working with the Dallas Police Department and the FBI to gather intelligence about the shootings.
De Blasio ordered flags to fly at half-staff to honor the victims of violence in the Dallas shootings until further notice.
Bratton expressed shocked at the murders, getting emotional and saying he hadn't seen anything like the Dallas shooting in his 45 years of policing. The shootings invoked the memory of the shooting death in 2014 of detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, the commissioner added.
"It needs to be a clarion call for all of us in this country to take seriously the grievances that many in the minority communities of this country have as well the concerns that police have about not feeling that they're understood in terms of all that they face and all that they try to do," Bratton said. "We need to try to find common ground as we go forward."
The mayor continued to walk a very careful line Friday as he expressed outrage over the police killings of civilians while also denouncing violence against the police.
"This is painful. I want to just urge all listeners, whatever you feel politically, recognize that our police officer are hurting today," he said. "There's a deep sense of connection among officers all over the country because of the life they devote themselves to and the fact they put their lives on the line for us."
He later added: "At the same time the grievances of so many community members are based on decades and even centuries of pain."
The mayor said Thursday at a press conference in The Bronx that the videos of the shooting death of Sterling and the aftermath of Castile's shooting had him "reeling."
"My feelings are the same as they've always been. No parent of color or parent of a child of color can watch that video and not be afraid. You fear for the life of a child when you see a situation like this because it's inexplicable," de Blasio said.
DeBlasio's relationship with police has yet to fully recover from 2014 when he spoke about how he had to train his biracial son, Dante, to interact with police following the chokehold death of Staten Island man Eric Garner at the hands of police.
Officers turned their backs on de Blasio months later at the funeral of Liu and Ramos following their execution style murder as they sat in their patrol car.
Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins criticized the mayor's latest remarks as hypocritical.
"You can't continue to speak from two sides of your mouth," Mullins said. "You can't have two different views when it's politically beneficial to whatever stage you are going on."
But the mayor said it was necessary to discuss "each part of the equation" if the relationship between police and the community were going to improve.
"We absolutely have to be able to do both so that we can end the violence in all its forms," de Blasio said. "Our officers are out there protecting us. But we have to restore a deep relationship and a positive relationship between police and community."
Police actions during the Dallas shootings should serve as a sign of hope, the mayor said.
"The fact that the officers' first impulse was to protect the protesters, that should be, even in the midst of the pain and the tragedy, that should be a ray of hope," de Blasio said. "That should be a reminder that we have to move forward, police and community together, and that we will."
