It’s no secret that Michael Bloomberg hates the Community Safety Act–the package of bills recently passed by the City Council that would institute an inspector general to oversee the NYPD and expand the definition of police profiling. The mayor vocally opposed the Act in the lead-up to the vote, and promised a veto and individual action against council members who voted it in after it passed.
Now, Bloomberg is making good on that promise. A source told DNAinfo the mayor and his counselor Howard Wolfson were “actively making the phone calls and making the last-ditch effort to find a viable candidate to run” against Queens Democrat Mark Weprin because he supported the legislation.
As DNAinfo points out, the vote on the Act barely passed a veto-proof majority, meaning if Bloomberg is able to change just a handful of votes, he could make the legislation go away. The prospect of running a candidate against Weprin–who is currently running unopposed–could be a threat designed to make him reconsider his vote.
Weprin, for his part, is unfazed. “I have no beef with the mayor. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the Police Department,” he said. “I am just representing the best interests of my constituents. My conscience and my constituents and the City of New York require me to support this bill because these reforms improve a system that has been flawed.”
