Posted on 06/22/2007 12:01:24 PM PDT by ellery
How many alleged criminals can a law-and-order candidate be associated with before it starts to hurt? That's the question facing former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, following the indictment Tuesday of Thomas Ravenel, his volunteer campaign chairman in South Carolina.
Mayor of the World Giuliani entered the presidential campaign early this year with one tarnished pal stuffed into his baggage: his former bodyguard, police commissioner and business partner Bernard Kerik. Kerik's career began to unravel in 2004 after Giuliani urged President Bush to name him Secretary of Homeland Security — a nomination that was quickly withdrawn amid reports of Kerik's questionable business and personal dealings. Kerik eventually pleaded guilty to ethics violations while on the city payroll and remains under investigation for tax evasion and other offenses, which Kerik's attorney has said, "he didn't do."
Now Ravenel, the state treasurer of South Carolina, has been charged with cocaine possession and distribution — a felony punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison. Neither he nor his attorney has made any statement.
Giuliani's campaign lost no time in announcing Ravenel's resignation from his unpaid post, and let it be known that the indictment took them entirely by surprise. And Ravenel's offense was alleged to have occurred in late 2005, before his official association with Giuliani.
Still, for a candidate promising to track the whereabouts and lawfulness of every non-citizen living in the United States, it can't help his cause when he fails to spot possible crooks on his corporate and campaign letterhead.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Rudy is just another metro playing butch...
Rudy seems to to be getting Scroowdied...
Rooty`s peaked, its downhill from now on.
Thank God.
Oh come on, Kerik is an issue, but a volunteer in South Carolina with a drug problem? What BS. Do they think Rudy was his supplier? The guy got busted and quit. Giuliani has an incredible crime fighting record on the federal and local level. That is just reality, whether he is a social liberal or not.
Six posts and the photo of Rudy in a dress hasn’t appeared?
He appointed high school dropout and former driver Bernard Kerik to NYC Police Commissioner and pushed him for Homeland Security Chief. Kerik turned out to be corrupt and mob-connected. Giuliani later testified that he had been briefed on Kerik's lawbreaking -- yet he pushed him for the top anti-terrorism post in the country, and then went into business with him.
For NYC Chancellor of Education, Giuliani pushed Leon Goldstein, who later was forced to withdraw his candidacy in disgrace because he lied about his qualifications.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE0DB1539F93BA1575AC0A963958260
In 1995, Giuliani pushed Leonard Piccoli to an executive director job in NYC's public hospitals organization, despite the fact that Piccoli had been forced to resign from the same job in 1985 due to substantial contracts and ethics violations.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE6DC1739F93AA25756C0A963958260
One of Giuliani's closest political allies in NYC, Guy Velella, pled guilty to and served time for taking bribes in return for awarding government contracts.
''I endorsed him, I support him, I've worked with him, I know what a good job he's done for New York City and for the Bronx,'' Mr. Giuliani said. The mayor said he thought the disclosures about the criminal investigation would not seriously damage the senator.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E3DF1639F930A35752C1A9669C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fV%2fVelella%2c%20Guy%20J%2e http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0420,robbins,53585,5.html
Giuliani's Probation Commissioner Raul Russi, and Deputy Probation Commissioner Louis Gelormino, later were dismissed from their jobs under Bloomberg because of their involvement in Velella's early release from jail.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10914FA355F0C708DDDA90994DC404482&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fV%2fVelella%2c%20Guy%20J%2e
After Ray Harding, head of NYC's Liberal Party, endorsed Giuliani, Giuliani appointed his son Russell Harding to head NYC's Housing Development Corporation -- even though Russell Harding was a college dropout with no experience in housing or finance (Giuliani chose a second son, Robert, as NYC's budget director, and later promoted him to deputy mayor). Russell Harding later pled guilty to embezzling hundreds of thousands in public funds, and to possessing child pornography.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0512,robbins2,62314,5.html
The Russell case brought down another of Giuliani's top appointees. Giuliani appointed Richard Roberts NYC Housing Commissioner, and Chairman of the Health and Hospitals Corporation; Roberts was later convicted of perjury related to a $38,000 SUV Russell Harding bought him with city funds.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0436,robbins2,56554,5.html
Giuliani appointed his lifelong friend, Louis Carbonetti, Commissioner of NYC's Community Assistance Unit. Carbonetti was forced to resign when news came out that he failed to disclose more than $100,000 in business debts and back taxes and held two driver's licenses with slightly different names at the same time. He pleaded guilty in 2004 to perjury. Carbonetti's son, Anthony Carbonetti, was Giuliani's chief of staff and is now his senior political adviser.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/ny-lijani255229113may25,0,729089.story?coll=ny-lipolitics-headlines
Giuliani's friend Alan Placa was hired on at Giuliani Partners after Placa, a Long Island Priest, was barred from the ministry because of allegations of sexual abuse and using his role as a spiritual adviser to gain information from victims to strengthen the diocese's legal position.
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=46&aid=19106
When Giuliani promoted Kerik to Police Commissioner, he appointed William J. Fraser to replace him as Correction Commissioner. Fraser resigned in 2002 amid reports that he had paid Correction employees to work on his home, and had pushed them to work on Pataki's reelection campaign.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A13F73C5C0C748EDDA80994DA404482
Anthony Serra, a Giuliani campaign volunteer and high-ranking official in Giuliani's Dept. of Correction (in charge of all the jails on Riker's Island), resigned after being charged with stealing city property and ordering correction officers to renovate his home.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40913FB395B0C728DDDAC0894DB404482&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fOrganizations%2fR%2fRikers%20Island%20Prison%20Complex
In 1994, Giuliani appointed Anthony Schembri to Correction Commissioner. Shembri resigned a year later after disclosures that used a workday to make a paid speech in Atlantic City, had the city regularly pay overtime and tolls for department drivers on errands to Rye, N.Y., where he had been Police Commissioner, and broke the law by never establishing a residence in the City. Shcembri went on to head Florida's troubled Juvenile Justice Dept.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E0D71630F937A15752C1A962958260
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/05/13/Citrus/Colleagues__friends_h.shtml
Giuliani hired former Corrections Dept. Chief of Staff John Picciano at Giuliani Partners. Picciano, a close friend of Kerik's, was accused of assaulting his girlfriend and threatening her with his gun in 1998. But he was never arrested. According to Terrence Skinner, a retired corrections supervisor, "{Kerik} told me that I should basically pretend it never happened." Picciano left Giuliani Partners one day after Kerik abruptly resigned.
http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?id=19361&siteSection=1
Giuliani appointed Michael Carey, a son of former Gov. Hugh L. Carey, to head NYC's Economic Development Corp. According to a "scathing" audit covering the last 18 months of Giuliani's administration and the first six months of Bloomberg's, the organization was used as a "little bank account for the mayor's office" -- paying for mayoral aides' cars, lavish parties and out-of-town trips. For example, the audit states that it paid more than $11K for Carey's going-away party, and $7K for the going-away-party of Catherine Giuliani, the organization's chief of staff. It also bought at least 11 cars for the mayor's office during Giuliani's administration.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E2DC143FF933A25753C1A9659C8B63
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/premium/0286/0286-8873007.html
Considering how vigorously he investigated and even punished others -- including many who were innocent -- this smacks of an egregious double-standard. Giuliani's approach to "law and order" would be more suited to a monarch who rules by personal whim than to a nation of equal protection under the law.
Ping to post #8; the list grows longer. Just thought I’d share as potential GiulianiTruthFiles material.
Rudy is not fit to manage a Taco Bell!
When I look at the Dem candidates, I have to wonder if Rudy wouldn’t have done fairly well on their ticket.
Giuliani has an incredible record aligning with corrupt operatives that he places in power positions.
His "crime fighting" record is great if you like living under an authoritarian who won't hesitate to seize your property or frisk you in public, all in the name of "security." Freedom? Oh, that's not important...
"Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every
single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion
about what you do and how you do it."-- Rudy Giuliani, New York Times, March 17, 1994
Besides that being a left wing position, I can tell you that I've met with top police commanders who implemented the NYC crime crackdown, and they were extremely careful to proceed in a lawful way that was approved even by New York's liberal judicial system.
You oughta ask those fellas about the Giuliani administration's "anti-DUI" initiative in which vehicles of motorists accused of driving drunk were seized by the police under a civil forfeiture process EVEN IF THE MOTORIST IN QUESTION WAS NOT CONVICTED.
A close review of that whole program ought to be enough to convince real Americans that Giuliani has no business serving in any government capacity in the United States of America.
Anyone who praises that A-hole's "tough-on-crime" track record has no idea what he's talking about.
NYC was out of control. Unsafe. Ruled by thugs. And most people thought it was irretrievable.
Giuliani supported a perfectly legal modern policing approach that brought the streets under control and turned NYC around.
You're in a fantasy world if you think some DUI car forfeiture law is gong to convince everyone that Giuliani is Adolph Hitler's stepson. Maybe we should turn Free republic into an ACLU website next.
The Constitution is only for liberals? Freedom is a left-wing issue? Who knew? Do you have any idea how many lawsuits Giuliani lost in court for violating people's rights? I'm sure that Stalin made sure that things were safe and peaceful in the city-square, as well.
In 1994 Giuliani and then-police commissioner William Bratton ordered their “elite” Street Crimes Unit to confiscate illegal weapons from pedestrians through a program of stop and search. Charges flew of civil-rights violations and increased police shootings. More than 33,000 people were stopped on New York City’s streets in 1997 and 1998, according to police data. The actual number stopped will never be known because many citizens were stopped and frisked and found not to be carrying unlicensed weapons. Most were sent on their way, and no paperwork or record of the intrusion was filed.
[Philadelphia Inquirer/Knight Ridder, Mar 22, 2007]Giuliani’s cops, and primarily [the Street Crimes] unit, have adopted aggressive crime-fighting methods. They’ve made stop-and-frisk procedures the centerpiece of their tactics. In the last two years, this unit has stopped and frisked 40,000 New Yorkers. They’ve found grounds to arrest fewer than one in four of them. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires cops to stop and frisk only when they have a “reasonable suspicion” - - one they can clearly articulate — that a crime has taken place or is about to take place. That legal nicety seems largely ignored in New York City. Last year, roughly half the felony gun cases brought to court in Manhattan were deemed unconstitutional.
[Times Union, Apr 2, 1999]The last time we checked, the Fourth Amendment protection `against unreasonable searches and seizures` was still the law of the land. But just get caught driving while intoxicated in New York City, neighboring Nassau County, or what seems likely to become a growing number of jurisdictions across America, and see where the rule of law gets you. In the brave new world of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s Big Apple, it will cost you your vehicle on the spot; no trial and conviction required. Along with the Fourth Amendment, you can forget about the Fifth (`No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law`), Sixth (`the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial`) and the Eighth amendments (`excessive fines shall not be imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment`).
[The Sunday Patriot, Mar 7, 1999]Peering from skyscrapers with lenses that can count the buttons on a blouse three miles away, [cameras] watch every move you make. Even Rudy likes to watch. After testing reaction to the monitoring of parks, public pools, and subway platforms, the city is quietly expanding a pilot program on buses. Cameras indistinguishable from lampposts have advanced from the perimeter of Washington Square into the heart of the park. They’re already hidden at some bus stops and intersections to snag speeders and parking perps. More are on the way. The Housing Authority is rushing to put bulletproof cameras in corridors throughout city projects. ... With little public awareness and no debate, the scaffolding of mass surveillance is taking shape. “It’s all about balancing a sense of security against an invasion of privacy,” Rudolph Giuliani insists.
[Village Voice Oct 6, 1998]
Great collection, Ellery.
Freeper Williams seems to think that Civil Rights are only for liberals.
You might add some of your other collection of constitutional abuses for their edification.
Rooty was briefed on Kerik’s problems he just didn’t care that he was a crook.
http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2004/12/hes_out_bernie_.html
The list of Kerik’s faults being paraded in the press during the course of the week included: his abandonment of his girlfriend and their lovechild in North Korea (the “family values” right didn’t care for that one); his use of Department of Corrections cops to campaign for a Republican mayoral candidate; his bankruptcy; his awarding an honorary police commissionership to his publisher; his misuse of over a million bucks allocated to buy cigarettes for inmates of the city’s jails; his $6.2 million windfall doing an insider trade in stock from Taser International, which did huge business with the Dept. of Homeland Security Bernie was supposed to head; or—the latest development—the fact ...
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