Top Cuomo Aide Slams deBlasio, Says He Deliberately Held Back Cops During BLM Riots

NEW YORK (VINnews) — According to a top New York government official, former Mayor Bill de Blasio deliberately withheld police from the massive BLM protests in 2020, in order to avoid personal embarrassment.

As first reported in the NY Post, Melissa DeRosa, top aide of former Governor Andrew Cuomo, recounted in her new book that de Blasio did not deploy enough police, because he feared violence between the NYPD and protesters would tarnish his reputation.

She referred to the decision as “malpractice” and accused deBlasio of being influenced by the far left.

As a result, there were insufficient police, which led to mass destruction, danger, and probably injuries or worse. DeRosa said that the NYPD had “only 4,000 officers on duty,” up against 5,000 protesters.

In her upcoming memoir, “What’s Left Unsaid: My Life at the Center of Power, Politics & Crisis”, DeRosa writes: “We learned that a high-ranking member of the police union had reached out directly to the governor that morning with disturbing information: he believed that de Blasio, fearful of more police clashes with protesters going viral on video, was purposefully not deploying additional bodies.”

“As a result, knowing they were outnumbered, officers were unwilling to take on the looters.”

Authorities estimated that 450 stores were vandalized throughout the city during the unrest.

“In the city, de Blasio made clear that, despite the deteriorating situation, he neither needed nor wanted support from the state police or the National Guard. The governor kept the channels of communication open, speaking directly with rank-and-file members of the NYPD and their union officials to get their perspective on what was going wrong,” DeRosa, said.

“I told [DeBlasio deputy mayor Emma Wolfe] that, based on conversations the governor was having with law enforcement on the ground, he believed strongly that the NYPD didn’t have enough police officers on the street,” she said.

DeRosa also slammed the movement to “defund the police” as stupid, although it heavily influenced the former mayor, who was never pro-cop, and eventually slashed the police force budget substantially.

“It was ill-advised and stupid, but that didn’t stop extreme-left elected officials from taking up the mantra. The mayor took it a step further, attempting to lead the charge by announcing he would cut $1 billion from the NYPD operating budget and another $500 million from its capital budget,” DeRosa said.