Mayor Bill de Blasio joined numerous politicians and advocates in calling for assistance to Haiti in the wake of a devastating, magnitude 7.2 earthquake that has so far claimed over 1,200 lives.
Hizzoner joined Rev. Al Sharpton, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and pols from Brooklyn and elsewhere at St. Jerome’s Catholic Church on Newkirk Ave in Flatbush Monday, arguing that the city and country needed to do right by the Haitian people in their time of need.
“There is no New York City without the Haitian community,” de Blasio said. “It doesn’t exist.”
The Haitian diaspora community in New York, and particularly Brooklyn, is the largest of any American city, and many are feeling anguish over compounding tragedies that have faced the Caribbean nation in recent weeks. The Haitian president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in July, and a country already reeling from an earthquake is now set to be hit by a tropical storm barreling towards the island.
