After nearly a week of unrest on the streets of his city, it was the moment Bill de Blasio could no longer avoid.

Across the Brooklyn Bridge at Cadman Plaza, the mayor arrived at a memorial service for George Floyd, to address New Yorkers who for days had been angry at his handling of the protests, the NYPD’s response, and a citywide curfew.
 

What You Need To Know


  • De Blasio was met with boos and jeers at Brooklyn memorial for George Floyd.

  • The mayor has struggled to strike a balance between keeping the city in order and allowing people to protest.

  • The city's curfew continues until Sunday at 5 a.m.

  • Allies of the mayor openly defied his orders, encouraging people to continue protests.

 

The crowd made its frustration heard, booing and jeering de Blasio as he took the microphone to address the Floyd family and to promise change at the NYPD.

“It will be about change, change you can see and believe in. Change in the NYPD," de Blasio said as the crowd audibly drowned him out.
 


The mayor has struggled to strike a balance: violent incidents against police, looting, and tense standoffs with massive crowds of protesters have all resulted in a different response from the NYPD nearly every night. 

On Wednesday evening, several videos posted to social media showed police using batons on seemingly peaceful crowds — contradicting the mayor’s guidance that peaceful protests would be allowed.

“A lot of restraint from the NYPD overall,” de Blasio said Thursday at his daily press briefing at City Hall. "I have not seen the videos you referred to or seeing those accounts, but if there's anything that needs to be reviewed, it will be."

But the mayor’s message becomes more muddled by the day.

“I want to be clear when people are instructed by the NYPD, especially after curfew, they must follow those instructions,” he said when asked about the department's enforcement of the 8 p.m. curfew.

He also asserted people would be allowed to gather to protest as long as they did it peacefully.

“If they are scrupulously peaceful, as you've seen all over the city, that peaceful protest continues, NYPD accompanies it,” de Blasio said.

But it all led to a cold reception in Brooklyn — the mayor’s home borough and the heart of the base which elected him. 

The crowd turned its back, a gesture once shown to him by police officers following the assassination of two of their own.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams railed against the mayor and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“We are supposed to be the progressive beacon of this country,” Williams said. "And we are failing. We have the wrong president, we have the wrong governor, and we have the wrong mayor."

As de Blasio stepped off the stage, those who once stood by him openly defied him and his orders. 

“Dont let up. Keep up, keep going, keep marching. Let them feel the pain,” Williams said to the crowd.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn, piled on.

“I want you to keep marching in the morning and in the evening, in the day and at night; in Brooklyn and in Manhattan, in the Bronx and in Queens,” Jeffries said. “We wont stop marching until it’s morning time in America.”

More protests are scheduled for the coming days. The curfew lasts 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. every day through Sunday.