Bill de Blasio: 'For The Last 21 Years I've Been Raising A Black Son...'

WATCH: de Blasio discusses raising a black son in America. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/vFl9W39W7Z

— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 27, 2019

“I’m the only one up here with a black son.” pic.twitter.com/efzH5l3cYI

— Joshua (@JhTV3) June 27, 2019

Look, I run the largest police force in America, too, and if we’re going to stop the shootings and get these guns off the streets, we have to have a very different relationship between our police and our community.

I also want to say that something that sets me apart from all my colleagues running in this race, that is for the last 21 years I’ve been raising a black son in America. And I have had to have very, very serious talks with my son, Dante, about how to protect himself on the streets of our city and all over this country, including how to deal with the fact he has to take special caution because there have been too many tragedies between our young men and our police, too, as we saw recently in Indiana.

So we need to have a different conversation in this country about guns, but also a different conversation about policing that brings police and community together.

We’ve done that in New York City and we’ve driven down crime while we’ve done it.