For the better part of the last two months, various police unions have been waging a very juvenile war against Mayor de Blasio, encouraging members to turn their backs to him in public or slinging vitriolic rhetoric in his direction. But something has apparently changed, because one prominent police union head has gone from calling de Blasio a "nincompoop" to labeling him a gentleman.
Ed Mullins, the head of NYPD sergeants union the Sergeants Benevolent Association, told Capital NY that he has started to mend fences with de Blasio. "The guy was a gentleman," Mullins told them. "We had a conversation and things have slowly begun to look differently. And all I can say is we need to give the atmosphere a chance to grow."
Mullins wouldn't get into the nitty gritty, but he added, "I had a private conversation that no one knows about with Mayor de Blasio. At this point in time, I think we need to agree to disagree. We need to work together for the benefit of the public."
This is a total turnaround from what Mullins and other police union leaders have been saying. Back in mid-December, Mullins called de Blasio a "total nincompoop" for his handling of a Brooklyn Bridge protest in which a lieutenant's nose was broken by protesters. "His actions are contributing to the injuries that are being received by the NYPD," Mullins said at the time. "Maybe he should be out there to take the broken nose for the lieutenant. Ask him if he’d be willing to stand out there and take the punches for the cops."
And just over a week ago, there was mass screaming and fighting at a police union meeting over the tensions with City Hall.
Of course, we shouldn't expect any police unions to be buying de Blasio flowers anytime soon: the News reports there's a flyer being passed around between cops right now depicting de Blasio as a puppet master, with the challengers to PBA union head Pat Lynch as the puppets on his strings. "You don’t want a apology do you my puppets," the graphic reads.
