Perhaps the most dramatic turn around is the decline in the city's crime rate. Moreover, minorities have been the primary beneficiaries of Giuliani's safer streets. The saturation coverage by the press of recent dramatic police shootings would suggest that the Giuliani-led city police are cavalier in their use of force. Unfortunately for polemicists of the Left, the statistics indisputably reveal a different story. Police shootings and fatal shootings in particular are down substantially when compared to the Democratic Dinkin Administration, in spite of the fact that there are now more New York City police officers.
Passions sometimes overwhelm reason and ambition sometimes steps on truth.
But the exploitation of police shootings by the likes of Al Sharpton and erstwhile political ally Hillary Clinton serves to delay racial reconciliation in the city. One senses in Democrats an exaltation over an opportunity rather than sorrow whenever there is a controversial police shooting. It was ugly when George Wallace capitalized on white fear for personal political advantage and it is ugly when legitimate concerns of the minority community are capitalized on for the same reason.