New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio became irritated when he was asked a question Monday about protesters calling police racists and murderers.
A reporter noted that some protesters have compared the New York City Police Department to the Ku Klux Klan and that some have gotten in the faces of police who are working the protests and shouted, "Murderer!"
"Would you be comfortable with the young adults in your household chanting like this at the protests? And we're hearing this at virtually every protest," the reporter said.
"No, of course not," de Blasio responded.
He then asked the reporter, "What are you guys gonna do? Are you gonna keep dividing us?"
The mayor said that 25,000 people recently marched down the streets peacefully, making no such "murderer" chants.
"What you managed to do is pull up the few who do not represent the majority, who are saying unacceptable things," he said.
Those who have physically attacked the police will be prosecuted, de Blasio said.
"The question is, will you tell the world about it?" he said.
He acknowledged that there are some bad actors among the protesters, who say such things to try to provoke a police reaction.
"They have no place in these protests," he said.
He added that some in the press enable those who act badly by highlighting their actions.
"That's how you want to portray the world," de Blasio said. "They, my friend, are not the majority. Stop portraying them as a majority."
De Blasio was speaking at a news conference at police headquarters addressing the killing of two NYPD officers on Sunday. Some critics have blamed the killings on de Blasio's seeming to side with protesters over police after recent grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of black men Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
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