De Blasio Admits a Troubling Fact About the BLM Lettering in Front of Trump Tower

AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
AP featured image
Mayor Bill de Blasio, third from left, participates in painting Black Lives Matter on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower, Thursday, July 9, 2020, in New York. The mayor’s wife, Chirlane McCray, is fourth from left and Rev. Al Sharpton is second from left. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
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Remember how Mayor Bill de Blasio painted “Black Lives Matter” on the street in front of the Trump Tower in NYC? It was an explicit effort to endorse the political group and appeal to the left by targeting the President because Trump criticized the group.

De Blasio even had police protecting the lettering around the clock for a couple of weeks, arresting people for defacing it and he also had the BLM lettering painted in the other four boroughs as well.

People against the city endorsing the radical group organized “Operation Paint Drop” and made several runs at spreading paint on the lettering in front of Trump Tower.

Now it’s been revealed that the city ignored its own rules for the process of public art projects like the BLM lettering because de Blasio never got the required permits for painting the lettering.

What de Blasio said when questioned on the matter says everything about how Democrats have absolutely no credibility any more and how they no longer believe in the rule of law.

From NY Post:

“That is something that again transcends all normal realities because we are at a moment of history when that had to be said and done, that’s a decision I made,” de Blasio said.

“But the normal process continues for anyone who wants to apply,” he added.

Translation? If I believe it’s important, rules don’t apply to me. But they still apply for everyone else.

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The pro-President Trump group Women for America First has sued City Hall for blocking a mural of their slogan “Engaging, Inspiring and Empowering Women to Make a Difference!” on a Manhattan roadway, while allowing multiple BLM paintings throughout the city.

Hizzoner insists he didn’t block the move, just referred groups like Women for America First and the pro-police Blue Lives Matter to the Department of Transportation’s permitting process. But there was no approval required for the BLM movement.

Oh. He’s literally confessing to unequal application of the process.

Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg tried to spin. “Anyone can apply through our public art program. As the mayor has said, the city does have discretion as well on painting those projects,” according to Trottenberg.

Civil liberties lawyer Norm Siegel is pretty liberal but even he saw the problem with this.

“Once you open the door and allow Black Lives Matter murals to be on the streets of New York, you can’t now turn down Blue Lives Matter. That would be a violation of the free speech provision of the Constitution,” Siegel told The Post.

Exactly. You’ve opened the door to all kinds of political statements on the street which is just straight up a bad idea when it comes to the city being involved in such things.

Meanwhile, now that he got in his jab at Trump and his 15 minutes from the left for the lettering, he’s since been less proactive about protecting the lettering in Manhattan. He even let the last “paint drop” on the lettering go without cleaning it for a week, whereas before, he had it cleaned and repainted within hours.

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So, here’s the thing. If de Blasio’s painting didn’t have a permit, but was done by fiat, how can painting over it be wrong, as former NYC Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik observes?

Why isn’t de Blasio fined?

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