n data-reactid="4">On May 31, as another night of disruptive protest overtook New York City streets, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, one of the unions representing NYPD officers, posted a photo of an arrest record on Twitter. Derived from an internal police database, the image revealed the protester’s height, weight, address, date of birth, and driver’s license information. It also revealed her name: Chiara de Blasio, the 25-year-old daughter of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. “How can the NYPD protect the city of NY from rioting anarchist when the Mayors object throwing daughter is one of them,” the typo-laden caption read. “Now we know why he is forbidding Mounted Units to be mobilized and keeping the NYPD from doing their jobs.” By morning, Twitter had removed the post, which violated its privacy rules, and temporarily suspended the union’s account. But the message to the mayor had been delivered.


De Blasio called the move “unconscionable” and defended his daughter. “I admire that she was out there trying to change something she thought was unjust,” he said. But as protests continued, de Blasio often sided with the NYPD against the movement in the streets, insisting—despite plentiful video evidence to the contrary—that the NYPD was showing “a lot of restraint.” Meanwhile, the SBA president, Edward Mullins, stuck to his guns. “Our police department is being held back,” Mullins told The New York Times. His intended audience was clear: “Is that why you’re tying our hands, because your daughter is out there?” Almost immediately, the city granted Mullins’s wish for a mounted unit, and on June 3, the NYPD deployed officers on horseback to protect “high-risk areas” from looters.

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