New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was drowned out with loud boos and angry shouts using the "F" word when he tried to take the podium during a memorial for George Floyd in Brooklyn on Thursday after he declined to call out police brutality in the city the night before.
Local press disclosed the crowd began booing instantly when the mayor was brought onstage and that the noise was so deafening it eventually forced him off the stage.
The crowd shouted at the mayor to "resign," and chanted other slogans in reference to their opposition to the city's 8 p.m. curfew that the mayor had enforced, reports added.
Hundreds of mourners jeered over de Blasio's brief remarks following a night in which footage that spread on social media showed police officers using batons on the peaceful demonstrators.
De Blasio told the media that he had not seen the video but defended how the state's curfew was being impposed, stressing that the New York Police Department had overall displayed a lot of restraint.
The mayor's humiliation started when master of ceremonies, Rev. Kevin McCall, introduced de Blasio to the podium at the Cadman Plaza, instantly eliciting loud jeers.
"We said, respect!" McCall begged, but to no avail, as the protesters shouted "No justice, no peace," as reported by Shant Shahrigian of the New York Daily News.
Chirlane McCray, the city's first lady, was the first to speak on the platform with an opening remark: "Power to the people!" Before handing the microphone over to de Blasio, McCray pleaded to give the mayor "the same respect that you (gave) me." But, the crowd just ignored her.
The booing was so loud, but de Blasio could still speak for almost five minutes, and moments later he was no longer seen on the podium. "Black lives matter in New York," he tried to say amid an intense jeering. "Not to you!" one heckler yelled, as reported by Laura Italiano and Khristina Narizhnaya of New York Post.
The local president of the Black Lives Matter movement, Hank Newsome, demanded the mayor to resign. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whom de Blasio has had frictions with, mentioned he has the authority to displace him as mayor.
Eric Ulrich, New York City councilor, took to social media Thursday morning and tweeted that de Blasio has lost control of the situation and said he would call on the City Council to vote for a no-confidence against de Blasio.
