De Blasio draws upon his family to console NYC
He is a white man with a black son, a mayor elected on a campaign centered on mending relations between the nation’s largest police force and the communities of color who feel mistreated and, at times, endangered by the police.
As Bill de Blasio spoke Wednesday night, his voice halting, in the aftermath of a grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death a black Staten Island man, he drew upon the experiences of his own family to connect with disheartened New Yorkers. He said he and his wife, Chirlane, have had to have painful conversations with their teenage son, Dante, about “how to take special care with any encounter he may have with police officers.”
“I’ve had to worry over the years, Chirlane has had to worry: Is Dante safe each night?” he said. “And not just from some of the painful realities of crime and violence in some of our neighborhoods but safe from the very people they want to have faith in as their protectors.”