De Blasio Balancing His Promises With Reality

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday issued a broadside to national Democrats, urging the party to embrace liberal values and attributing its midterm losses to a lack of fidelity to the progressive cause.

But at home, things are more complicated.

This week, Mr. de Blasio frustrated some liberal advocates by failing to brief them beforehand on changes to the Police Department’s enforcement of marijuana laws — an effort that was subsequently dismissed as a “sugar pill” by Cornel West and others who said the overhaul did not go far enough in addressing the concerns of black and Hispanic New Yorkers.

Now, Mr. de Blasio is having to grapple with the same coalition of police critics whose cause he embraced during the mayoral campaign. He has concerns about legislation to be introduced in the City Council on Thursday that would set strict new rules for officers, including a requirement that they receive explicit consent to search suspects in some instances, a move sure to anger the department’s rank and file.

And in a sign of the critics’ growing frustration with their onetime champion, an influential police reform group recently cut ties with a public affairs firm that is closely identified with Mr. de Blasio, seeking to be unconstrained from exerting greater pressure on his administration.

It is an intriguing moment for a mayor determined to be a beacon of the new left, but who must balance bold rhetoric with the realities of bringing reform in the complex city he governs.

On Wednesday, Mr. de Blasio, who swept into office promising to reduce income inequality and promote racial equity, published an op-ed article urging Democrats around the country — many in far more conservative environs than New York City — to adopt his own policy priorities for the 2016 elections.

“This year, too many Democratic candidates lost sight of those core principles, opting instead to clip their progressive wings,” Mr. de Blasio wrote.

The essay, on The Huffington Post, was part of a daylong tour of news media outlets favored by the mayor’s liberal base: He was interviewed by the left-leaning MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes, and he called in to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show, saying Democrats should “be forceful” about endorsing progressive ideas.

That is the very advice Mr. de Blasio is hearing from some liberals in New York, who say they are disappointed at what they call an incremental approach to the police reforms he campaigned on.

“Have race relations improved? I can’t say, to be perfectly honest,” said Antonio Reynoso, a city councilman from Brooklyn who said he wanted faster change at the Police Department.

For Mr. de Blasio, who points to an emphasis on training and a reduction in police stops as evidence he is changing the Police Department, pressure from the left is to be expected.

“There’s always going to be voices, advocates, activists calling for you to do more on a whole host of issues,” he said, “and always be people who say everything you do is going too far.”

The mayor, whose poll numbers have stayed generally high, would be likely to lose support from some centrists if he fully adopted measures that advocates like Mr. Reynoso are proposing, which could drastically alter the rules of engagement for police officers.

Mr. Reynoso is co-sponsoring a bill that would require officers to explain that searches can be refused without a warrant or probable cause. Officers would have to identify themselves, provide a phone number for a citizens’ complaint board and get “objective proof” of consent before searching any person “when there is no legal justification.”

The sponsors say the measure would reduce police intimidation, especially among minorities. But the bill has caught the ire of police unions, and Mr. de Blasio said on Wednesday that he was reluctant to support it.

“I certainly have concerns,” the mayor said at a news conference in Lower Manhattan. “We obviously have to protect the rights of our people, but we also have to make sure we are not in any way undermining the ability of law enforcement to do its job.”

Those remarks are in keeping with Mr. de Blasio’s more moderate approach to changes at the Police Department, where he has defended the “broken windows” approach — stopping small crimes to prevent big ones — despite criticism that it disproportionately hurts minorities.

Mr. de Blasio kept up his balancing act this week, when he said that low-level marijuana possession would merit a ticket, not an arrest.

The move drew criticism from left and right: Police unions said he was going soft on crime; liberals said the change would not keep minorities from being given more tickets than whites.

“We’re going to continue to see serious problems and serious racial disparities,” said Joo-Hyun Kang, director of Communities United for Police Reform, which led efforts against stopping and frisking.

“It would have been good to see him do something really sweeping,” said Gabriel Sayegh, a managing director at the Drug Policy Alliance, which seeks to ease marijuana laws. Mr. Sayegh’s group was one of several that consulted with city officials about the policy but complained they were not told that an announcement was imminent.

On Wednesday, Mr. de Blasio said he “could not be more proud” with his administration’s work on police reform.

“I would say to any of my critics, with respect, those who think we have not been fast enough,” he said: “Look at any other 10-month time frame in New York City government history and tell me where you see more movement in terms of real progress in police-community relations.”

Liberals still want to wait and see. Christina Greer, a professor at Fordham, has criticized Mr. de Blasio for moving slowly on addressing concerns about the police and race. On Wednesday, she said his movement on marijuana regulations was a positive sign.

“He’s not going to please everyone; that’s also the job of mayor,” she said. “At least he can say, ‘I’m moving the needle.’ ”

___________________