President Donald Trump called on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to “stand up” for the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) law enforcement after multiple officers were drenched with water while responding to calls.
“We love our Law Enforcement Officers all around this great Country. What took place in NYC with water being tossed on NYPD officers was a total disgrace,” Trump tweeted on Thursday. “It is time for [De Blasio] to STAND UP for those who protect our lives and serve us all so well…”
“…What took place was completely unacceptable, and will not be tolerated,” he continued. “Bill de Blasio should act immediately!”
The president’s remarks were in response to two separate incidents over the weekend where bystanders threw buckets of water onto NYPD officers.
The first video surfaced on Monday showing two officers making an arrest in Harlem. As they were handcuffing an individual, the officers were doused with buckets of water and further pelted with the empty buckets.
A second video posted in Instagram shows two drenched NYPD officers walking back to their car in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. As they walk away from a crowd, individuals continue to repeatedly run up to the officers and dump buckets of water over their heads.
De Blasio responded to the incidents hours after they appeared on social media, telling CBS News that “throwing things at NYPD officers is not only not acceptable, it can lead to charges. All of those actions can lead to charges.”
The NYPD revealed on Wednesday that one arrest has been made in connection with one of the two incidents.
Courtney Thompson, a 28-year-old Brooklyn resident, turned himself in later in the week, reported The Wall Street Journal. Thompson faces three misdemeanor charges including for criminal nuisance and obstruction of governmental administration.
Two others individuals, Isiah Scott and Chad Bowden, were also arrested for their involvement and face a variety of charges.
Vice President Mike Pence also weighed in on the incidents on Monday, calling their conduct “disgraceful.”
“President [Trump] and I will ALWAYS stand with the brave men [and] women of our law enforcement who serve on the thin blue line every day,” Pence said.
De Blasio, however, responded to Trump’s tweet urging the New York City mayor to stand up for his police force.
“Crime’s gone down year after year in New York City and it’s not just because you finally left town,” de Blasio responded from his official mayoral Twitter account.
“Here are the facts: New York City is the safest big city in America — and we got there because our NYPD officers and our communities worked together to drive crime to all-time lows,” he continued. “The real work that we’ve done that ACTUALLY protects officers.”
The Democratic presidential hopeful then fired back at the president claiming that he was out of touch with his hometown of New York City.
“[Trump] knows NOTHING about his hometown. He never lived a real New York City life. He should get off Twitter and stick to what he’s good at: watching TV when he claims to be working,” de Blasio wrote.
The NYPD is still investigating the incident that took place in Harlem.