Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said he'd "shake hands with the devil" to keep the city safe when asked about the Rev. Al Sharpton's influence in the mayor's administration at a Manhattan event Wednesday morning.
Bratton later categorically denied that his reference to the devil had anything to do with Sharpton.
Specifically, Bratton was asked if he felt undermined when Sharpton called out the NYPD at a reform talk last month organized by the mayor in the wake of the death of Eric Garner. Garner, 43, died after being put in a chokehold by police while being taken into custody; his death was ruled a homicide.
At that meeting, Sharpton openly criticized Bratton as well as the mayor. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said at the time the mayor's decision to hand one of the most vocal critics of the NYPD a microphone undermined the police commissioner. Bratton didn't directly say whether he felt undermined or not when probed Wednesday during the Crain's New York Business event at the Roosevelt Hotel.
He quipped, "We live in very interesting times," and noted the good Sharpton has done for the community.
"You might not like him, you might not like his history ... but the reality is over time he has emerged as a very significant leader, a voice for people who feel that they don't have a voice and are disenfranchised," Bratton said.
Bratton went on to talk about the record-low number of August shootings in the city. He also mentioned the lack of problems at the Garner rally Sharpton organized, when thousands of people drove in caravans over the Verrazano Bridge to protest the NYPD.
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He said it shows the city's maturity that people are able to freely express their views without rioting in the street, a soft allusion to the crisis in Ferguson, Missouri, that erupted after a police officer fatally shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown.
"I'll shake hands with the devil if necessary to keep this city calm, safe and secure," Bratton said. "I will meet with whoever is necessary to hear their perspective, their viewpoints. It's what's expected of me as a public official."
"Do I have personal issues with some of the people I meet with? Certainly," he added. "But my obligation to you and the other 8.5 million people in the city is to hear all the voices."
Asked about his comments outside the Roosevelt Hotel after the event, Bratton said he was glad for the opportunity to clarify his statement.
"Let's not go there," Bratton said. "I've met with Mr. Sharpton frequently over the last 20 years and we continue to meet, so that reference of meeting with the devil was not an implication of that term being applied to him."
Sharpton told NBC 4 New York Bratton called him shortly after the event to give him a heads up about the comments. The civil rights advocate went on to say that "if he thinks I'm the devil, I'll wear devil horns to meetings -- I don't care as long as we get better police policy."
The Staten Island district attorney is convening a grand jury this month to consider whether to file charges in Garner's death.
Sharpton runs the National Action Network and is a talk show host on MSNBC, which is owned by WNBC's parent company, NBCUniversal.
