A “CHILL” ON SPEECH
The Answer Coalition, an activist group, denounced the mayor’s plea as an “outrageous” attempt to “chill” free expression. It said it had no intention of cancelling a long-planned protest march on Tuesday evening.
At least one small candle-light vigil called for by a separate coalition of groups took place in Brooklyn on Monday evening, an organizer said.
De Blasio’s remarks came two days after his tense relationship with the city’s police unions and rank-and-file officers hit its lowest ebb when two union leaders said the mayor had “blood on his hands” for the officers’ deaths.
The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and the Sergeant’s Benevolent Association have accused de Blasio, a Democrat who ran for office on a platform of police reform, of helping incite a loathing of police through public remarks noting that he understood some of the protesters’ grievances.