Mayor Bloomberg’s comments on East Harlem traffic safety evoked a stinging letter from the uncle of Amar Diarrassouba, a 6-year-old boy killed there by a truck.
“Though we are all grieving for the loss of our young relative, I must take a moment to express our outrage at your colossal insensitivity and total lack of compassion,” Lassina Diarrassouba wrote the mayor March 6. “If you have nothing compassionate to say, it would be better to say nothing at all.”
A day earlier, it was reported Bloomberg had answered a reporter’s question by urging parents to explain to their children that they must look before crossing.
Diarrassouba said the heartbroken family took the remark as directed at them.
In fact, the mayor’s entire response — which was not reported — indicated he was speaking in general terms about how to keep New York’s streets safe.
“We try to have traffic lights,” he said. “We try to have red lights, cameras, which the state won’t let us have. We deploy our police officers when they’re not doing other things. We have signs. We try to educate our kids. And parents have a responsibility to talk to their kids and explain to them they have to look before they cross, not let very young ones go out without supervision. We have, around schools, slow zones where you have to go slower.”
Diarrassouba yesterday conceded that the mayor was “probably talking to all” but asked that he be more careful with his words.
“You have to choose the right time [to comment],” the anguished uncle said.