News Digest

NYC mayor, police union leaders meet amid rift

Mayor Bill de Blasio met privately for more than two hours Tuesday with the leaders of the New York Police Department’s unions, aiming to mend a rift with rank-and-file officers that has threatened to overwhelm his young mayoralty. While administration officials characterized the meeting as the beginning of a process to heal wounds opened by protests about police conduct and the fatal shooting of two officers, union leaders struck a more cautious note, saying that only “time will tell” if relations would improve. At the meeting, de Blasio stressed that he has not been anti-police in his remarks, imploring the unions to check the transcripts of his speeches and interviews.

There was no resolve. And our thought here today is that actions speak louder than words and time will tell.

Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which represents rank-and-file officers

Union spokesman Patrick Lynch has been one of de Blasio’s fiercest critics, saying the mayor had “blood on his hands” after the brazen daylight ambush on two officers in their patrol car earlier this month. A person who was briefed on the meeting but not authorized to speak publicly on a private gathering told The Associated Press that Lynch repeated much of his recent public remarks accusing de Blasio of aligning himself with protesters who have created an anti-NYPD atmosphere that led to the shooting. The union leaders charged that de Blasio had helped create an unsafe environment for police.