Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani is living up to his image of bigotry and intolerance. How can he blame President Obama for the unrest and civil disobedience that followed the Michael Brown Jr. and Eric Garner killings? It reveals the insensitivity of a man with a track record of intolerance for poor people and people of color.
The reasons given by Giuliani for the riots and protests that erupted in American cities is nothing short of right-wing hate speech and political misinformation. The opposition has reworked its demand for the oppression of poor and black people in the hate speeches they deliver on national TV, the cable news channels and in the print media. Blaming Obama for the murder of two New York police officers, Giuliani lied about the president.
Giuliani said, “We’ve had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police. The protests are being embraced, the protests are being encouraged. The protests, even the ones that don’t lead to violence, a lot of them lead to violence, all of them lead to a conclusion: The police are bad, the police are racist. That is completely wrong. It is the reason for the heavy police presence in the black community.”
Giuliani should be embarrassed and ashamed, but extremists die hard.
This is the same Giuliani who declared war on the homeless. He stated that the homeless had no right to sleep on the streets: ”Streets do not exist in civilized societies for the purpose of people sleeping there. Bedrooms are for sleeping.” He added that the right to sleep on the streets doesn’t exist anywhere: “The founding fathers never put that in the Constitution.” Advocates for the homeless reacted with disbelief.
The New York Times reported that in January 2000, on one of the coldest nights of the winter, cops with badges began pulling sleeping homeless out of bed, dazed and destitute, and putting handcuffs on them. They were being arrested for failing to appear in court in the distant past to answer for such crimes as public urination, sleeping in the subway, and begging for food in public. Nearly 150 homeless were arrested. “These are quality of life crimes,” Giuliani said. Most of those arrested had afflictions, such as mental illness and substance abuse, common to those who end up on the street.
It seems that Giuliani does not have compassion for the demonstrators because he has no sympathy or consideration for poor and oppressed people. He must understand that the negotiators and protestors declare they will continue with an ongoing effort to gain a clear and permanent guarantee of privileges for their groups, such as police oversight, justice, equal and human rights, and an end to police brutality.
It is hard to accept as true that, after so many years of struggle and sacrifices , people of color must again have to revert to demonstrations and civil disobedience to seek justice and acceptability in a country so many of their parents, grandparents, forefathers and ancestors have fought and died for.
Margaret Mead put it in a few words: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Wake up, Rudy. Wake up!
Please watch the Bernie Hayes TV program Saturday Night at 10 p.m. and Sunday Evenings at 5:30 p.m. on KNLC-TV Ch. 24. I can be reached by fax at (314) 837-3369 or e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net.
