De Blasio can't resist the siren call of leftist protests in Germany
Like lemmings marching over a cliff, leftists from all over the world are descending on Berlin to take part in left-wing protests at the G-20 summit.
One of those leftists is New York mayor Bill de Blasio, who skipped a swearing in ceremony for new police officers – in the wake of the assassination of a policewoman last week – to jet off to Berlin to participate in the demonstrations.
De Blasio will be the keynote speaker, organizers of the demonstration – Hamburg Shows Attitude – tweeted.
The mayor also made sure the free trip will include a visit with his son, Dante, a Yale University student who's spending the summer on an internship in Berlin, a City Hall spokesman said.
Presumptive Republican challenger Nicole Malliotakis accused de Blasio of abandoning pressing issues in the Big Apple to pursue his progressive agenda in Europe.
"Unbelievable. Instead of jet-setting around the world, he should be here doing his job," said the Staten Island assemblywoman. "A police officer was murdered, street homelessness has skyrocketed and people continue to get delayed on the trains."
Malliotakis – who later tweeted a doctored image showing de Blasio in an Alpine hat and lederhosen, grinning behind a plate of bratwursts, wienerschnitzel and Pilsner glasses – also blasted him for blowing off the NYPD ceremony at the Police Academy in Queens.
"The mayor should be embarrassed by the way he has treated the men and women of our police department," she said.
The head of the NYPD sergeants union also attacked de Blasio.
"As the city mourns, its leader flees," Ed Mullins said. "And then he wonders why he has a problem with the police. A real leader stays with the city in this time of hardship."
Less than five hours before de Blasio's flight to Berlin, NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill offered reassurance to 524 new recruits in the wake of Wednesday's slaying of Officer Miosotis Familia.
We've come to expect this sort of adolescent behavior from de Blasio, who apparently doesn't realize he's the mayor of a major American city and not some hepped up college student going overseas to mount the battlements and wave the bloody shirt, protesting Trump and capitalism.
De Blasio was joined on the trip by spokesman Eric Phillips and two other aides, whose travel expenses are also being picked up by Hamburg Shows Attitude.
Phillips said the gifts were approved in advance by the city Conflicts of Interest Board, whose general counsel said it was "prohibited by law from disclosing any information regarding advice we provide."
In October, de Blasio told a class of NYPD recruits, "We honor you for making this choice," before adding that "what we owe to you is every effort to keep you safe."
Following Familia's slaying, her sister, Adriana Sanchez, ripped de Blasio, saying that "the mayor has to do something for this madness to stop," and that windows on NYPD vehicles should have been made bulletproof "a long time ago."
De Blasio is being mentioned by some Democrats as a possible presidential candidate in 2020. If he keeps this up, he will have trouble being re-elected as mayor despite weak opposition by other Democrats and the Republicans.