“One of the key differences between me and all my opponents is I’ve had the safety and security of 8 million people on my shoulders. Being continually tested in crisis situations gives me the credibility and experience to control our borders.”
That’s a quote from Rudy Giuliani from one of campaign flyers about illegal immigration. But whatever the topic is, I love the idea behind it. I’m in New York City right now. As far as I know, my security is in the hands of the US military, the FBI, the CIA. I could rattle off various other agencies and officeholders. But Michael Bloomberg wouldn’t show up prominently on my list.
I know the NYPD is protecting me from getting mugged or shot or having my apartment broken into. But every mayor in the country is responsible, either directly or indirectly for that. But that’s not national security exactly. And when was Rudy Police Commissioner?
In other words, in Rudy’s imagination, New York City is a separate country. And he was the commander-in-chief for eight years protecting the city from various foreign threats.
Anyway, it’s really all of a piece: like when Rudy was a 9/11 clean-up worker, or when he was a CIA interrogator.
Late Update: Note too that, by my count, at least two of Rudy’s opponents were governors (Romney and Huckabee … Am I missing anyone?). And they actually at least have state National Guard troops at their disposal. But Rudy’s tenure as Mayor trumps that.
Even Later Update: An acquaintance of mine actually works in the NYPD’s counter-terrorism/intel division. So this is a good point from TPM Reader MC. But as he notes, this all happened post-Rudy …
As William Finnegan documented in the New Yorker a couple years back, the NYPD, unlike almost any other American municipal police force, has an extensive intelligence section, including agents who are sometimes deployed overseas. And they have been known to lend translators (drawn from the rank and file in our polyglot city) to federal
security agencies who don’t have enough translation manpower.But pretty much all of this innovation occurred after Giuliani left office, under Bloomberg’s police commissioner Ray Kelly.
Much Later Update: A number of readers make a pretty good point. Does Rudy really want to run under his new claim that he was Commander-in-Chief of New York City from 1994 through December 2001? If New York really is its own military jurisdiction, those eight years really didn’t go too well.
