New York City mayoral candidate releases anti-police campaign ad
Thomas McDonald
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New York City mayoral candidate Maya Wiley released an anti-NYPD campaign ad that claims police officers unnecessarily beat and ran over Black Lives Matter protestors.
“They ran into peaceful protesters, beat others to the ground, and New York’s leaders defended it,…It’s time the NYPD sees us as people who deserve to breathe,” Wiley says in the ad.
Wiley, a former MSNBC contributor and former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, labels herself a “mom and civil rights lawyer.” She speaks as the video shows police officers driving through a crowd of protestors in June o 2020, during one of the many violent protests of George Floyd’s death.
Wiley’s comments about New York’s leaders defending the police’s actions refer to the NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea saying officers did a “phenomenal job” handling the Black Lives Matter protests last year.
“I think we responded to a very difficult situation. I think the officers did a phenomenal job under extremely difficult circumstances,” Shea said at the time.
“I’m Maya Wiley. As a mom and civil rights lawyer, I’ve had enough,” she proclaims in the ad. “If elected to City Hall, I’ll transform the police and keep communities safe.”
Wiley’s campaign ad comes after placing fifth out of eight potential mayoral candidates among likely voters. Polling also shows crime as the number one issue for New Yorkers and most favor adding money to the NYPD budget.
NYPD union leaders were quick to criticize Wiley’s ad, blasting her as “out of touch” and “dividing the city” in a statement.
“Maya Wiley is a de Blasio flunky and will soon be put on a shelf with other loser politicians who attempt to live off a government paycheck,” said Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association Union. Mullins said Wiley’s anti-police stance explained why she is trailing her opponents by double digits.
“Sadly, her silence on the increasing violence in NYC is indicative of how out of touch she is with the city and explains why she’s losing in the polls,” he added. “If she truly cared, she would stop self-promoting and start screaming about the gun violence taking the lives of young African American males on the streets of NYC.”