Top Ten Reasons to Vote for Mike Bloomberg
7. He’s kept crime going down without the Mussolini-like police tactics of Giuliani. There have been no mayorally-sanctioned police hate crimes like Diallo, Louima and Dorismond.
Well, as long as Mike didn’t sanction Sean Bell and Michael Mineo, I guess he’s fine. Though retaining Ray Kelly no matter what happens (I know, I know, he gets results, dammit!) seems like a tacit endorsement of whatever shit goes down. Like, you know, refusing to turn over any documents relating to the GOP convention (or was that also ok because it just involved infringing on the rights of dumb hippies who ran red lights?), and all that illegal domestic spying. (did you argue the merits of warrantless-wiretapping?) It should probably be more explicit: a vote for Mike is a vote for having your community policed by a paramilitary counterintelligence agency that operates entirely without mayoral oversight.
This is only the second-most disgraceful thing about Bloomberg, obviously, this pretending to be better than Giuliani while the NYPD continues to do do whatever it wants without consequences. Personally I still find the 40,000 people in shelters thing a little more upsetting.
Pareene makes good points. But I think Bloomberg’s response to Sean Bell was in marked contrast to anything Giuliani would have done, he made it clear the NYPD had stepped over the line and showed support for the family instead of defaming the victim.
I agree with Peter, and specifically I’d like to address Alex’s points about the homeless and about the “paramilitary counterintelligence agency.”
You can’t completely blame the mayor for homelessness and shelter populations. People are responsible for their own welfare, ultimately; it’s a free country for all. I think that, along these lines, if you want to accurately blame Bloomberg for anything that has contributed to homelessness, then you can blame his development-happy economic policies. The loss of cheap housing is collateral damage in this city’s endless quest to gentrify its problems away. The thing is, I can’t even single out Bloomberg for this, because it had happened everywhere across the country. It was a popular idea! The conditions for it were favorable for a while, the policies worked during that time, we created a national real-estate bubble in the process, and now big real estate projects aren’t good ideas anymore. The mayor now needs new ideas for economic development, and solutions to all the problems that past developments (and bubble collapses) caused. Bill Thompson could have won this election if he had any such ideas.
As for the paramilitary counterintelligence force… NYC has unique dangers and special security needs, and our police force works efficiently to meet those needs and shield us from those dangers. Aside from the cops who aren’t doing their jobs properly (you’re talking to someone who’s seen this firsthand), the overall state of law enforcement is good. Most people live happy, convenient lives in NYC, and enjoy many liberties. Like every city, there have been a few fiasco incidents, but the system is not in freefall. We are not Detroit or Camden. There is surely potential for improvement, but not a level of dysfunction such that an incumbent should be tossed out of office.
I’m saying this because we’re all citizens too, and I’m not expecting my government to be served to me on a silver platter. We can participate in government, support people with good ideas, or even just try not get in the way. But I don’t like the idea of showing up one day a year and complaining loudly about what the government is not doing for them. If anything, please just don’t be like Bill Thompson and think you’re going to get your way by telling everyone who NOT to vote for.
