A damming new report has exposed serious wrongdoings by New York City’s Democrat Mayor as he used the city’s police force as his own personal lackies – putting them to work on menial tasks such as helping his daughter move or driving his son to and from his university.
The report released on Thursday by the city’s Department of Investigation (DOI) revealed that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio misused police resources on his security detail to assist in his adult daughter’s move out of Brooklyn, as well as to transport campaign staff during his presidential bid.
The DOI concluded that the Democratic mayor misused police resources by directing members of his Executive Protection Unit (EPU) to help move his daughter, Chiara de Blasio, out of her apartment in Brooklyn in 2018.
NYPD personnel helped carry furniture and an NYPD sprinter van carried her belongings to Gracie Mansion, which is the official residence of the mayor of New York City located in Manhattan.
EPU detectives also drove the mayor’s son, Dante de Blasio, to or from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, on multiple occasions without either the mayor or his wife and first lady Chirlane McCray present.
It was also common practice for the EPU to drive Dante de Blasio to locations around New York City without his father or mother, typically at the direction of EPU superiors.
“Although it is the position of the NYPD Intelligence Bureau that both de Blasio children should have full-time protection, both children declined an assigned detail as adults,” the 49-page report says.
DOI also determined that the City of New York expended $319,794 for the members of Mayor de Blasio’s security detail to travel during his presidential campaign trips. Funds which the mayor has still not reimbursed the city for either personally or through his campaign.
The report also says that during these campaign trips, EPU members occasionally transported de Blasio’s campaign staffers with the mayor.
Both reflect a use of NYPD resources for political purposes, according to the DOI.
For approximately one year, the security detail has also been conducting frequent security checks at houses owned by the mayor in Brooklyn, where neither he nor his family members reside. The NYPD inspector in charge of the first family’s security detail “actively obstructed and sought to thwart this investigation, frustrating DOI’s efforts to learn the full facts regarding these allegations,” the report says.
The mayor’s office attempted to justify this blatant misuse of the police force – which de Blasio has fought to defund – by arguing that the report “the very real threat assessment and concern” against the mayor and his family.
The mayor’s office on Thursday even went as far as to claim that the “January 6 insurrection at the Capital [sic] underscores real and present danger, especially for elected officials who publicly opposed Trump.”
“Intelligence and security experts should decide how to keep the mayor and his family safe, not civilian investigators,” the mayor’s office further argued. “This unprofessional report purports to do the NYPD’s job for them, but with none of the relevant expertise – and without even interviewing the official who heads intelligence for the City. As a result, we are left with an inaccurate report, based on illegitimate assumptions and a naïve view of the complex security challenges facing elected officials today.”
Author: Jacob Darmont
