Left-wing mayoral candidate Maya Wiley released an anti-NYPD campaign ad Tuesday, claiming cops don’t see her and other black New Yorkers as “people who deserve to breathe.”
“They ran into peaceful protesters, beat others to the ground, and New York’s leaders defended it,” says Wiley, who in a recent poll ranked fifth out of the eight candidates.
The former MSNBC contributor and Mayor Bill de Blasio counsel speaks as footage plays of police officers driving into a crowd of protesters in June 2020 during one of the many George Floyd protests over the summer, several of which degenerated into riots with widespread looting.
While a human rights report found a Bronx protester crackdown violated international human rights law and a lawsuit from Attorney General Letitia James said “inadequately trained officers” violated New Yorkers’ civil rights, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and de Blasio have repeatedly defended the officers’ actions during the demonstrations.
“But it was an injustice to those who know Black Lives Matter,” says Wiley, former chair of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, as she walks down a city street.
“I’m Maya Wiley. As a mom and civil rights lawyer, I’ve had enough,” Wiley says.
If elected to lead City Hall, Wiley says, she’ll “transform the police and keep communities safe.”
“As mayor, I’ll be in charge, and I’ll get it done,” says Wiley, who is black. “Because it is time the NYPD sees us as people who deserve to breathe.”
Wiley has lagged in polls in the Democratic primary, which will be held on June 22. The former MSNBC legal analyst has made reining in the NYPD a key part of her platform, but the new ad represents a ratcheting up of rhetoric as she makes her pitch to left-wing New Yorkers in the home stretch.
Wiley’s anti-NYPD ad comes as left-wing rival Dianne Morales’ mayoral campaign melts down, with staffers staging a work stoppage and levying unspecified allegations of mistreatment and unequal pay — disarray that the former nonprofit executive labeled “a beautiful and messy thing.”
And Comptroller Scott Stringer, who earned early endorsements from left-wing politicians in his bid, has struggled to gain ground after former campaign volunteer or intern Jean Kim accused him of sexual harassment and assault, which he denies.
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