Posted on 07/21/2007 7:09:33 PM PDT by neverdem
Those were grim days for race relations in New York City, the early 1990s. There were nearly 2,000 murders each year, blacks and whites died in high-profile racial killings, and a riot held a divided Brooklyn neighborhood in thrall for three dangerous nights.
On Jan. 9, 1994, another match landed in this tinderbox: a caller reported a burglary at a Harlem mosque. The police ran in, and Nation of Islam guards threw punches and broke an officer’s nose.
The mosque’s minister, accompanied by the Rev. Al Sharpton, drove downtown to register their outrage with the police commissioner, a street theater ritual grudgingly tolerated by past mayors.
Except the new mayor — Rudolph W. Giuliani, fresh off his November victory over the city’s first black mayor, David N. Dinkins — decreed that no one would meet with Mr. Sharpton. No more antics, no more provocations.
“I’ve taken a golden opportunity to act like a sensible mayor rather than a mayor who will be moved in any direction,” he said. “I’m an observer of the last 10 years of this city, and I hope to God we don’t continue in that direction.”
More than any other Republican running for president, Mr. Giuliani has confronted the question of race, that most torturous of American legacies.
His 1993 mayoral campaign slogan, often repeated, of “one city, one standard,” emphasized his view that no ethnic or racial group should expect special treatment. And he spoke with a stunning bluntness about what he saw as the failings of the city’s black leadership.
His handling of the mosque fracas set the tone. In the years to come, Mr. Giuliani would rebuff not just the histrionic Mr. Sharpton but nearly every high-ranking black official in the city, even those of moderate politics: congressmen, a state comptroller, influential ministers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Explore an annotated collection of articles and documents on Rudolph W. Giuliani's complex history with the issue of race.
No thanks. I know all I need to know about Rooty Toot.
Never, ever, trust a liberal.
I may not agree with Rudy's social liberalism, but he did a damn good job as mayor of NYC. I personally applaud his take-no-prisoners and break-fingers approach to leadership. It gets things done.
I’ll echo your comments. I don’t support him for President, but he’s likely the best Mayor the city had in a very long time.
He is probably great in that area, but that’s not what matters to me. I’m a Christian conservative.
He did that by turning it into more of a nanny/police state. I live here.
McCall is ascribing this thought to Giuliani. As of that time, the thought is about right. In fact, it's still about right. Among the officially designated minorities, NYC politics is pretty much tribal: How much can you steal for your group from the taxpayers in patronage and cheap symbolism—such as having city blocks named for dead Communists who shared your skin-tones? Baghdad has nothing on these folks.
The ethnic politicians, with few visible exceptions, are an illiterate political mafia who issue insincere, victim-chic sound bites while lining their pockets. The white plurality is divided between the venomously Left-wing types (who are into cultural suicide), and white-ethnic families who flee to the outer boroughs to get away from the lunatics.
God bless Giuliani for shutting down the crime and corruption for two terms and bringing back order and prosperity. The results have lasted so long, they have allowed the nerdy, narcissistic Bloomberg to look almost like a mayor.
The NYT article's attempted spin—that Giuliani erred in not giving the local race-hustlers their usual cut—is, of course, laughable. But because the country isn't as far gone as New York was, a social liberal President like Giuliani would actually set America back. Maybe we should get rid of term limits in NYC and make him mayor again.
He's way too RINOish for me but a good guy.
Rudy did an admirable job of rescuing NYC from the depths of misgovernment it reached under “General” Dinkins. The statistics of NYC recovery are undeniable for anyone who wants to look. His courageous and personal response to the 9/11/01 disaster contrasts him from the passive, overly delegative approach most politicians take.
Newt is right on that we are in a “Phoney War” phase of the War on Radical Islam. The worst is yet to come. Although I do not agree with Rudy’s social liberalism, I believe he is the only Republican who has the ferocious instincts needed to take on the Democrats with strong, clear, confrontational language; and then to take on the Islamic radicals without mercy, and without regard to the sovereignty rights of any nation—friend or foe—where radicals are sheltered or hiding. As for Fred Thompson, I will support him strongly if he gets the nod but based his lackluster role as minority counsel in the congressional Watergate investigations, and his less than successful investigation of the Clinton’s selling missile technology to the Chicoms for campaign loot, I do not believe he has the capacity to win or the will to succeed as President. The worst disaster that could ever befall this nation—with consequences more horrible that we can today imagine—would be another Clinton presidency. No matter who the nominee is, every conservative needs to make sure such a fate does not happen.
Dispatches: 7 Rules: 1 Oath (Michael Yon)
End of Dreams, Return of History Long, but quite interesting
From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
Please...don’t post any more NYC threads. They attract people who have never been to NYC, don’t like NYC, and couldn’t find it on a map.
Did you forget a sarcsm indicator? You could write the same for the USA or the baseball Yankees. I also linked a story about another candidate.
Yes, I was joking...but not much.
Riot in Brooklyn in the early ‘90s? I should remember that. Does anybody know anything about that? As a note I lived right off Ave. X in the early 90’s.
Good points, bro. I wouldn’t say YET that Ol’ Fred doesn’t have it, but there is good reason to think he may not.
I've never voted for a dem, but Rudy has some peculiar ideas for fighting terrorism.
The Unlikely Frontrunner - Is the GOP in for a Rudy awakening?
"Giuliani spends a good deal of every stump speech stressing the need for America 'to stay on offense' in the war on terror. His precise conception of that war, and his approach to foreign affairs in general, is harder to pin down. To the extent that he's amplified his view of the terror war, it seems much closer to the economic determinism of the moderate realist school than to the notorious butt-kicking strategy of the neoconservative warrior class. Indeed, he says the 'war on terror' is itself a misnomer; he prefers the term 'the terrorists' war on us,' which does sound rather more defensive.
"'Americans hate war,' he recently told the Churchill Club, a gathering of Silicon Valley executives. 'We're at war because they want to come here and kill us, not because we want to go there and kill them. We want to do business with them. We would love to have them all wired and part of the Internet buying American products, and then we'll buy their products. And then we'll have the kind of issues we have with China and India, like we used to have with Japan. But those are good issues to have. That's America, that's what America is about.'"
"In the end, he says, victory in the terror war may come down to commerce. 'Technology has transformed the world,' he told the executives. 'Part of the way we're ultimately going to win the war on terror is through that technology. We're going to win the war on terror because, yes, we have to be militarily strong, we have to consider defending ourselves, but ultimately we overcome terrorism when those parts of the world that haven't connected yet connect to the global economy.'"
"Consider China, he said. 'China has plugged in. It's still a dictatorship, and they have to overcome that. But they've plugged into the global economy. If you think of where the terrorists are coming from, those are places that haven't plugged in. Ultimately economic freedom pushes you to political freedom. . . . We need to be strong, we need to be determined, but we also need to connect as many of these [Middle Eastern] countries as possible to doing business with us, to being connected to the Internet with us.'"
Ah, Crown Heights, okay. I lived in Gravesend, plus I was 6 when we moved to Ave. X. Thanks Never
If you want a more authoritarian, bullying, more intrusive, more controlling, all-powerful, ‘big government knows best’, 'Big Brother' type of government,,,,,
headed by a pro-abortion, pro-amnesty, pro-litigation, gun-grabbing, gay-rights crusading, condescending, arrogant, and narcissistic LIBERAL, New York ‘pit bull’ lawyer who believes in using our tax money for Federally-funded abortions,,,,
who worked in the Bobby Kennedy campaign, voted for George McGovern, who first ran for mayor as a candidate of the LIBERAL PARTY, who as mayor publicly distanced himself from Ronald Reagan , who vocally supported and proudly endorsed a far-left, liberal, big-government, socialist, democrat like Mario Cuomo over the Republican candidate for governor,,,,
who was so liberal that he wasn’t even invited to the Republican Convention in ’96--after refusing to endorse (until the last minute) the Republican candidate opposing Clinton,,,,
and a Clinton-apologist--whose personal life is an absolute TRAIN WRECK (almost making Bill Clinton look like a decent family man and loving husband--if that is even possible),,,,
a LIBERAL like Rudy JulieAnnie is JUST THE MAN FOR THE JOB!!!!
Well put.
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