NY Gov. Cuomo: Police Failed to Do Their Job During Protests

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that New York City's police failed in their duty to protect the public from looting and other criminal activity during protests the previous night, and that the city's mayor had refused help from the National Guard.

Cuomo also criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for his response to the protests across the country, saying he had used the bully pulpit to focus predominantly on looters so that "he doesn't have to talk about the killing" of George Floyd.

The governor said the New York City Police Department should be deploying a larger contingent of its 38,000 officers to counter looting and vandalizing, with damage reported across much of the city of 8 million people overnight.

Cuomo also told a daily briefing that he believed Mayor Bill de Blasio was not grasping the enormity of the unrest.

"The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night," Cuomo said. "I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem."