Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday responded to the cellphone video that captured a woman in SoHo falsely accusing a Black teenager of stealing her iPhone, saying the woman should face consequences.
“We've seen a series of things like this around the country. It's almost become tragically comical how much you can rely on the fact that someone will unjustly accuse a young man of color in America,” said de Blasio during his daily briefing.
The 14-year-old boy’s parents held a press conference on Wednesday with the Rev. Al Sharpton and attorney Ben Crump, demanding that the woman be held criminally accountable.
His mother, Kat Rodriguez, said that the same woman also attacked her son and his father.
The NYPD has reported that they’ve identified the woman in the video, but they have not released any other information about her.
The department said it is not investigating the incident as a bias crime, but the mayor seems to disagree with that decision.
“When someone does something like this, they have to suffer consequences, and there needs to be a real action here by the criminal justice system to make sure there are consequences in this case,” the mayor said.
A few hours before his press conference, in an interview with CNN, the mayor compared it to an incident that took place in Central Park in May, in which a white woman called the police on a Black man after he asked her to put her dog on a leash.
“She falsely accused someone and put that young teenager through a traumatic experience. That's unacceptable. It's like that horrible situation we have in Central Park some months ago. This has to stop. You can't accuse someone because of the color of their skin. It’s unacceptable,” he said.
On a more personal note, he spoke about what it’s like being the father of a Black son, and his hope for change in the criminal justice system.
“I have a son of color who is about as good a human being as you could possibly imagine,” said de Blasio. “If you're a young black man or any young man of color in America, and you're looked down on and treated like there's something wrong with you, how are you going to succeed? How are you going to believe in yourself? How are you going to believe your society is going to be fair to you?”