NEW YORK (AP) – Bill de Blasio, New York City’s first Democratic mayor in a generation, is winding down his first year in office, which saw success at fulfilling many of his liberal campaign promises but has at times been overshadowed by events beyond his control, most notably the recent killings of two police officers amid a wave of protests against police conduct.
De Blasio has appeared triumphant against some of those outside forces – notably during the Ebola scare – and has become a national progressive voice, but the police shooting has pushed his young mayoralty into its biggest crisis yet. The double slaying, which came weeks after a grand jury declined to indict an officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, has heightened de Blasio’s delicate efforts to support arguably his most important city agency, the New York Police Department, yet also defend the rights of the protesters who share his liberal values.
As 2014 draws to a close, his balancing act is teetering. Twice in a week, officers mourning their fallen brothers turned their backs on de Blasio, a searing display of contempt and an omen that de Blasio’s struggle with police could cripple his attempts to improve the fortunes of those living at the margins of the nation’s largest city.
“It’s extraordinarily tense and it’s not sustainable,” said David Birdsell, dean of the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College. “If the police dominate the headlines and his political capital rather than, say, his plan for affordable housing, it will remain a massive problem.”
De Blasio’s problems with the police run deep.