Giuliani: Flawed or Flawless?: on Crime

Al Sharpton: Giuliani’s tone allowed Louima police brutality

Al Sharpton opined, “There was a tone. And the fact that something so vicious could be done by somebody like Justin Volpe in a police station with other officers there has to give you an idea of the mentality that the police must have had at that time, that they could get away with it. You’re not just talking about a psychotic guy that brought him down under the railroad tracks after dark; he did this in the precinct and no one turned him in, no one stopped him, no one made a move. And that’s frightening.

Al Sharpton: NYPD “cowboy” unit disbanded after Diallo shooting

The Diallo movement got rid of the Street Crimes Unit. Clearly it had almost a cowboy mentality. It had no concern for civil liberties. To live every day in a community where you have to be afraid of the cops and the robbers is something I would not wish on anybody.

We hear Diallo’s parents came from Africa and were talking to Mayor Giuliani. Our fear was that Giuliani was going to try and get to the family and undercut the movement for justice.

Eric Holder: Declined federal involvement in NYC Diallo shooting

In attempting to understand why federal charges were not brought against the police officers in this case, the authors sent a e-mail to Eric Holder, the deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, who had announced the Department of Justice's decision not to do so. On July 6, 2005, Judge Holder replied by e-mail, stating, "I suggest you contact the folks who made the initial decision and who are closer to the case--the prosecutors in Manhattan."

Considering the refusal of the above-mentioned officials to comment on the issue, one can understand Saikou Diallo's frustration at not being able to achieve justice for his late son.

Rudy Giuliani: Applies strict moral standards to lawbreakers

I think the fact that he was of Italian heritage himself made him a tough prosecutor; he wanted to bend over backwards to root out and successfully prosecute organized crime because he felt that Italian Americans suffered unfairly by gangsters being Italian and he resented it. But it is also that he was in the US Attorney’s Office at the right time: white-collar crime was breaking out all over; the sentencing guidelines were coming into play where the position was being taken that white-collar defendants should no longer be coddled and that they should be prosecuted severely.

He was scrupulously honest; you could never corrupt Rudy Giuliani by offering him anything of value to do something that he did not think was appropriate.

Rudy Giuliani: Prosecuted Miss America for fraud (and lost)

Rudy had been told this is an unwinnable case. Clearly, their strategy was to throw me to the wolves. I never met Rudy; though I knew he was heavily involved. It was one of his pet projects because he wanted to run for mayor and what could be better than bringing down a judge, a Mafia contractor, and Miss America, Koch’s “girlfriend,” in one swoop?

Rudy Giuliani: As mayor, reduced crime but didn’t raise police pay

Another police spokesperson added, “the cops, to a person, despise him today for building his career on their backs and becoming a law-and-order mayor, and never taking care of the people who did the work. He was behind us publicly. When he came into office, crime was at a peak [and Giuliani reduced crime]. But before he was elected, we were among the highest-paid police officers in the nation. We got a 5-year contract under Giuliani with 2 years of no raises. We’re starting to see the impact now: they can’t get enough recruits and they’ve had to lower the standards to hire.

Rudy Giuliani: Considered police brutality in Louima case an aberration

Giuliani was quoted in Newsweek in 1999 about the case, saying “I think brutality happens, but in the late 1990s it’s an aberration.”

Al Sharpton opined, “There was a tone. And the fact that something so vicious could be done in a police station with other officers there has to give you an idea of the mentality that the police must have had at that time, that they could get away with it. He did this in the precinct and no one turned him in, no one stopped him, no one made a move. And that’s frightening.