New York City’s mayor on policing: “It’s different for a white child”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged to ABC News’ This Week on Sunday that he had to “train” his biracial son to tread carefully if he’s ever stopped by police.

De Blasio explained:

What parents have done for decades, who have children of color, especially young men of color, is train them to be very careful when they have a connection with a police officer, when they have an encounter with a police officer.

It’s different for a white child. That’s just the reality in this country. And with Dante, very early on with my son, we said, look, if a police officer stops you, do everything he tells you to do, don’t move suddenly, don’t reach for your cell phone, because we knew, sadly, there’s a greater chance it might be misinterpreted if it was a young man of color.

De Blasio also criticized former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for previous comments in which Giuliani suggested the “responsibility is on the black community” for preventing the heavy policing of minority neighborhoods.

“I think he fundamentally misunderstands the reality,” de Blasio said. “We’re trying to bring police and community together. There is a problem here. There is a rift here that has to be overcome. You cannot look at the incident in Missouri, another incident in Cleveland, Ohio, and another incident in New York City all happening in the space of weeks and act like there’s not a problem. There’s something fundamental that we have to get at here.”