After weeks of tense standoffs between police and protesters during the past month’s Black Lives Matter protests, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has consistently defended the NYPD from accusations that they have treated demonstrators with excessive force and wanton brutality. Even as graphic videos of police violence circulated widely on social media — NYPD officers using their SUVs to ram protesters; officers beating and shoving protesters to the ground — de Blasio insisted that the police had shown “tremendous restraint.”

When police attacked demonstrators in the Bronx after the 8 PM curfew, arresting roughly 100 people, the mayor repeated the lie — spread by NYPD leadership — that the presence of dangerous “outside agitators” had necessitated the forceful response. Asked by WNYC’s Brian Lehrer how de Blasio could justify so many well-documented instances of violence, the mayor bristled. “Respectfully,” he said, “I’m not hearing objectivity in your question.”

De Blasio’s deference to the NYPD cuts against his image as a champion of progressive causes, which he has cultivated throughout his career. He has frequently spoken about his multiracial family (particularly his son, Dante) to suggest a personal commitment to addressing racial inequalities. He campaigned for mayor on police reform and the promise to end stop-and-frisk — a policy that allowed the NYPD to temporarily detain, question, and search civilians at will — and even deployed his son in a campaign ad in which Dante affirmed his father’s commitment to ending “a stop and frisk era that unfairly targets people of color.”