#3055: Rudy Hits Cop 'Bashers'... (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Rudy Hits Cop 'Bashers'  Blames politically correct bias  for furor over
fatal shoot 
By FRANK LOMBARDI, MICHAEL R. BLOOD and KENNETH R. BAZINET 
Daily News Staff Writers
Original Publication Date: 03/29/2000 

 Mayor Giuliani last night blamed "politically correct prejudice" for
the backlash he has suffered since he released the criminal history of
Patrick Dorismond, who was shot to death by a city cop.I think we're
going up against a severe politically correct prejudice," Giuliani said
at a $100,000 fund-raiser in Washington. "They call me 'vicious, mean,
Nazi' ? all of that." The mayor, who was greeted outside the American
Legion Hall on Capitol Hill by three dozen cheering supporters,       
described his critics as "the usual police bashers," the media,       
"so-called progressive Democrats" and his opponent in the Senate race,
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I think the facts are going to
demonstrate that I handled it correctly," Giuliani said at the
fund-raiser, which was hosted by the husband-and-wife team of former New
York Reps.Susan Molinari and Bill Paxon and attended by members of    
Congress and lobbyists. Molinari and the mayor's campaign granted a
last-minute media request to open the event to the press.

 Earlier in the day, in New York, Giuliani predicted that the discovery
of marijuana in Dorismond's body would influence how New Yorkers
ultimately view the unarmed guard's death. "There are a lot of factors
that will come out in this case that will indicate that the picture is
much more complex than the  press has unfortunately painted it," the
mayor said. He pointed an accusatory finger at the media for
allegedly     skewing details of Dorismond's March 16 shooting on a
Manhattan streetcorner after he rebuffed undercover cops trying to buy
marijuana. Giuliani again defended his controversial decision to release
the guard's sealed police records, including his juvenile file. "It
turns out there was marijuana in his body," the mayor said, stressing
that he wasn't the source of the toxicology results, first reported in
yesterday's Daily News. Alluding to the police records, Giuliani said
the media "didn't emphasize the fact that there is a strong propensity
to violence  ? that's going to be relevant. It's a reality. You've got
to deal with it." The attorney for Kevin Kaiser, who was with Dorismond
the night he was killed, released a statement faulting authorities    
for disclosing the autopsy report and calling for a probe into       
how it was leaked."Kevin Kaiser states unequivocally that there was no
marijuana smoking the night Patrick Dorismond was killed," said the
attorney, Sanford Rubenstein.Rubenstein said the marijuana ? the amount
of which was unknown ? "could have come from secondhand smoke. It could
have been in his system for up to eight weeks." The mayor's comments
came as he faced a second potential inquiry into his order to release
Dorismond's records. Backed by more than a dozen elected officials,
Public Advocate Mark Green requested a rare "summary judicial inquiry"
on whether the mayor broke the law when he authorized the release.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Louis Gans ordered the mayor to respond
by April 13.In another development, Assembly Democrats slated their
first public hearing on the mayor's release of Dorismond's records.    
The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the John Jay College gym
on 10th Ave.