Many are wondering if Dr. Oxiris Barbot’s future with the New York City Department of Health could be in jeopardy after alleged comments she made about the New York City Police Department.
Neither NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea nor Commissioner Barbot were present at Wednesday’s briefing and when questioned why, the mayor said, “We put together the lineup according to what we think is necessary and that changes every day.”
Commissioner Barbot allegedly told Chief of Department Terrance Monahan in an explicit manner that she did not care about cops when she was asked to provide additional masks to the NYPD.
“I want to get more information. I will state something. I feel very strongly that no public servant should ever in anyway say anything disrespectful about the men and women at the NYPD. They protect us, we need to protect them, so to me it would be inappropriate for anyone particularly in a leadership role to suggest any lack of interest in protecting the men and women of the NYPD. That would be to me a real inappropriate statement,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio during Wednesday’s briefing.
The Health Department has not responded t
Commissioner Shea told another media outlet the accusations were disturbing but preliminary, as the context isn’t completely clear. However, the Sergeant Benevolent Association and the Detectives Endowment Association are calling for her to be fired.
The mayor did not address their requests for her to be fired, but did say he’ll have more to say in regard to this once he speaks to both Chief Monahan and Dr. Barbot about this particular conversation.