#3029: NY Mayor Defends Himself, NYPD (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Tuesday March 28 10:46 AM EST  NY Mayor Defends Himself, NYPD
  —Eileen Murphy & Peter Dizikes, ABCNEWS 

 NEW YORK — Saying he wears his well-known temper as a “badge of honor,”
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani again defended his handling of the Patrick
Dorismond shooting today.Speaking at a press conference in Albany on
Tuesday afternoon, Giuliani addressed the controversy that has
 dominated New York’s Senate race since he authorized the release of the
criminal records, including the sealed juvenile record, of Dorismond,
the unarmed black man shot dead by undercover police officers on March
16. “There is always going to be a division between people making
decisions, taking actions, and those who are not,” said Giuliani. His
own actions, he said, were “sometimes perceived correctly, and sometimes
incorrectly.”Giuliani also responded to charges that he has not been
sensitive enough in dealing with the matter, saying there was “always
going to be a certain degree of emotional distance” necessary for him to
do his job. 

 GOP Talks Campaign Strategy 

 The shooting of Dorismond has been a central issue in the Senate
campaign for more than a week, and Giuliani’s Senate opponent, first
lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, criticized the mayor’s handling of the case
last week, calling it a “leadership issue.” So even though Giuliani was
officially in Albany to discuss budget concerns with New York Senate
Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and other party members, the subject of the
Dorismond controversy was raised in the meetings.“We talked about how
he’s perceived, and what we can do to counteract that,” said Republican
assemblyman John Faso, who characterized the legislators’ meeting with
Giuliani as frank and open. For his part, Faso thinks that fallout from
the controversy will be minimal in upstate New York. “People are
 enthusiastic about Giuliani’s candidacy,” Faso said. However, the
Dorismond case is currently important enough to merit discussion among
Republican leaders and strategists. According to Faso, Giuliani “gave
this group his view of how he’s going to respond to these things in
 the future.” 

 Funeral Saturday, Criticism Sunday 

 On Sunday, Giuliani placed blame entirely upon marchers for a clash
between police and crowds which followed Dorismond’s funeral on
Saturday, calling it “an orchestrated attack” on police officers.     
In the aftermath of the conflict, many of the mayor’s detractors,
including the Rev. Al Sharpton, renewed their criticisms of Giuliani.
Sharpton called for an investigation into Saturday’s conflict, and also
asked for the Justice Department to place the New York Police Department
under the supervision of a federal monitor.

      “The mayor needs to stop scapegoating people and deal with the
issues of police brutality,” said Sharpton on Sunday. “We need to deal
with policing in the city of New York or let the federal government come
in and straighten them out.” When asked about Sharpton on Tuesday,
Giuliani avoided a direct response, simply saying saying that in the
future, people would agree that the Dorismond case “was handled the way
it should have been.”