Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke out Tuesday following a wave of alleged anti-gay hate crimes that have stirred outrage in neighborhoods across the city.
“New York City has zero tolerance for intolerance,” he told reporters at a press conference with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at police headquarters. Read More
In a room filled with the grieving families of fallen cops, Mayor Michael Bloomberg once again lashed out against his wannabe successors who’ve been critical of the department–albeit less dramatically than his fire-and-brimstone speech last week.
During a memorial ceremony for six officers at One Police Plaza, Mr. Bloomberg said the NYPD should be celebrated–not attacked–and repeated his threat that future administrations may leave both officers and the public less safe. Read More
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has always been critical of media outlets and politicians pushing policies that he argues will weaken the New York City’s police department, but he took his case to the next level this afternoon when he blasted both the City Council and the press writ-large for undermining the city’s security.
He used the recent murder of a Bronx teenager to make his most forceful plea for proactive safety strategies. Read More
During his press conference announcing that Boston Marathon bombers intended to target Times Square, Mayor Michael Bloomberg slamed “special interests” he accused of trying to block the city from installing crime-fighting surveillance cameras.
“The role that surveillance cameras played in identifying the suspects was absolutely essential to saving lives, both in Boston, and now we know here in New York City as well,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters at City Hall.
“We’ve made major investments in camera technology–not withstanding the objections of some special interests,” he continued. “And the attacks in Boston, I think, demonstrate just how valuable those cameras can be.” Read More
Longshot mayoral candidate Erick Salgado wants to bring Mayor Rudy Giuliani back to City Hall– this time as the new police commissioner.
Mr. Salgado, a socially conservative reverend, said he’d love to keep current Police Commissioner Ray Kelly on as the city’s top cop, but has at least one back-up choice in mind.
“I would consider Ray Kelly if he’s available. If he’s not interested, maybe I ask Rudy Giuliani to come and serve as police commissioner,” he said during the campaign’s first televised debate, which was held at John Jay College and sponsored by NY1. Read More
Ray Kelly tends to stay out of politics, much to the dismay of some, but the city’s police commissioner fired a rhetorical shot at President Barack Obama while discussing gun violence with the Daily News yesterday.
“Maybe the city most affected (by guns) is Chicago,” Mr. Kelly said. “The President’s hometown. But barely a peep out of him.” Read More
“I’m talking about political leadership, they’re not out there talking about the problem,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said on Inside City Hall last night, defending his department’s use of the controversial stop-and-frisk policy. “They’re not out there talking about, ‘Hey, we have a lot of young men of color shooting each other.’ You don’t hear that spoken about openly. You do hear unhappiness with the tactics and strategies that we use.”
The host, Errol Louis, interjected to argue that elected officials do indeed talk about violence, and not just problems with the NYPD, causing Mr. Kelly to retort, “Well, you’re not reporting it. They do report it when they criticize the police though, certainly on New York 1.” Read More
The Queens Chronicle published an interview with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and his top spokesman Paul Browne in which Mr. Browne described the notion many reporters were arrested at the police raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park as “a total myth.” In his story about the interview, Chronicle Editor in Chief Peter C. Mastrosimone wrote that Mr. Browne claimed “only one journalist was arrested during the operation,” but the NYPD told us there were actually two arrests of credentialed reporters during the raid.
“The information that I have here–there were two individuals that were arrested in Zuccotti Park, which was Julie Walker and Patrick Hedlund, they were credentialed individuals,” said Sergeant Ryan with the NYPD’s office of the deputy commissioner for public information. Read More
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and his top spokesman, Paul Browne, gave a lengthy, exclusive interview to the Queens Chronicle in which they discussed one of the biggest controversies surrounding the Department in recent months–the arrests of journalists during last November’s raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park. Mr. Browne apparently denied reports of journalists arrested at Zuccotti Park and attributed them to protesters using fake press credentials.
“Paul Browne, the deputy commissioner for public information, who accompanied Kelly to the interview, added that only one journalist was arrested during the operation, despite stories to the contrary, which he called ‘a total myth,’” wrote Chronicle Editor in Chief Peter C. Mastrosimone. “Occupy Wall Street protesters were forging press credentials in an effort to get through the police lines, he added, but that doesn’t mean actual reporters were arrested.” Read More
One afternoon earlier this month, Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate and a potential mayoral candidate, held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to unveil a new report and suggest a modest reform. The New York Police Department has seen the number of people it has stopped and frisked skyrocket, often without yielding any evidence of a crime. Mr. de Blasio suggested the agency simply record the number and location of their stops, just as they record murder, thefts and rapes under CompStat, the computerized police accountability system that is credited with keeping the city’s plunging crime rate low.
A few hours later, Howard Wolfson, Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for communications and an old pal of Mr. de Blasio’s from their days on the Hillary Clinton Senate campaign, sent out a blistering response. Read More
