NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- New York City’s police unions have been trying to “sow division” for years, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday, calling Monday night’s Shake Shack incident yet another example of their efforts to “undermine progress.”
At least two of the city’s police unions on Monday night tweeted that three NYPD officers had fallen sick after drinking milkshakes from a Shake Shack at the Fulton Center in Manhattan, with one union — the Detectives’ Endowment Association — claiming workers there “intentionally poisoned” them.
Hours later, NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison tweeted that there was “no criminality by Shake Shack’s employees.”
Asked about the incident during his daily briefing on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he has “been fighting with these unions from day one.”
“I would think the unions would trust the NYPD to find the truth. And I thank Chief Harrison for so rapidly getting the truth out,” he said. “But the unions, these union leaders don’t want the truth. They just want to sow division. And we have to figure out what the limits are on their right to do that.”
“I think it’s time for a full review of when their actions reach beyond freedom of speech, or the right to represent one’s members, which are absolutely appropriate activities, and do things that are counterproductive to the safety of New Yorkers,” he added. “And in the end, this example last night is a good one.”
De Blasio on Tuesday also addressed another recent police union Twitter controversy.
Over the weekend, one of the police unions — the Sergeants Benevolent Association — retweeted a tweet thread in which former Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the removal of Confederate monuments an “insane attempt to erase American history.”
Responding to a reporter’s question about the retweet, de Blasio said the SBA’s leadership “has engaged in racist activities so many times I can’t even count it.”
“Anyone who is tweeting in favor of Confederate monuments is supporting the structural racist history of this country,” he said.
“I don’t like to be fighting with any labor union… I believe in the labor movement. But what I’ve seen from the SBA… it’s literally anti-social what these union leaders do,” he added. “They try to undermine efforts to bond police and community, they try to undermine progress.”