giuliani's howlers

There are several aspects of the Giuliani "crime and statistics" dustup that haven't been mentioned yet. Crime did in fact decrease during his term as New York City Mayor but the reasons for the decrease are complex and generally not the result of Giuliani's actions. The number of NYPD cops was dramatically increased by Giuliani by 12,000....but, as reported in the Nov. 11, 2007 Times, 7000 of those "new" police officers were actually fully trained and operational cops from the Housing Authority and Transit Police who were merged into the NYPD. The wisdom of this move has been challenged by those who inisist that NYPD lost it's "neighborhood cops" strategy both in the projects and the subways. Further (and as far as I know this isn't out there yet)....the remaining 5000 increase is largely the result of Mayor David Dinkin's "Safte Streets, Safe City" program....the new classes of these cops (put in place by Dinkin's initiative) graduated and were deployed after Dinkins lost the election to Giuliani. Also, and this noone talks about, the number of crime-age juveniles in America decreased dramatically in the Giulinani Mayoral years. The baby boomer's kids grew past their 20's with the concomitant decrease in crime. Finally (and here Giuliani can be applauded and then booed) William J. Bratton took over the police force early on Giuliani's watch and according to veterans of the department,"got the old stuck battleship moving." Bratton was too successful (Time cover etc.) and the upstaged Giuliani eased him out of his job.