On September 11, 2001, Rudy Giuliani was transformed from lame-duck mayor to something almost larger than life. By the time he appeared at the 9/11 prayer service at Yankee Stadium on September 23rd, Giuliani had become a national name. Oprah Winfrey, the master of ceremonies at a somber yet patriotic event, with flags waving and the crowd cheering, introduced him as “America’s mayor” as he stepped forward to address a terrorized city and a terrified country.
“On September 11,” he began with a date that has since come to encapsulate a collective national trauma, “New York City suffered the darkest day in its history. It’s now up to us to make it our finest hour.” He spoke before thousands gathered at the stadium and millions of Americans watching on TV. The prosecutor-turned-mayor seemed well suited for this crisis. Seemingly unafraid, he stepped into a void of leadership to take charge -- more than Governor George Pataki and arguably President George W. Bush. The mayor appeared calm, resolute, and reassuring. Empathetic, even. “The number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear, ultimately,” he grimly prophesied. This was Rudy, bringing the nation together.
But before that day, the Rudolph Giuliani that New Yorkers knew was not a uniter. He had put his stamp on the city as a divisive figure. Giuliani first made a name for himself as a tough-nosed federal prosecutor who took down mobsters and corrupt Wall Streeters, aligning himself with law enforcement every step of the way and strategically positioning himself to further his political ambitions.
In the years afterward, Giuliani reinserted himself in the national conversation, most notably as the disbarred personal attorney to former President Donald Trump. But long before his work with Trump, however, he was a prosecutor who eyed elected office, including the presidency. Mike Paul, the national reputation manager who back in the 1990s worked in the Giuliani administration, said one issue seemed like a clear winner to a younger Giuliani. “Crime in New York, at that time, is seen -- at least by some -- as being out of control. It needs a law enforcement politician, It needs a law enforcement mayor. It needs a law enforcement elected official. And Rudy has ambitions to be that elected official and to be mayor of the city of New York,” Paul recalled.
Giuliani was not yet mayor when a young white woman, Trisha Meili, was brutally beaten and raped in a remote part of Central Park. Giuliani chose that moment to run for mayor the first time on a divisive platform of wresting back control of the city from Black and brown people. “This is 1989. And it's still a majority white population in New York City,” Paul said. “Some that are fearful. And then the Central Park Five situation pops up and he works at it like a tool to say, ‘See, this is why you need me. … I'm the right guy.’”
The so-called Central Park Five, all Black and brown teenagers, were arrested and wrongfully convicted of Meili’s attack amidst this fear of crime hysteria that Giuliani helped to gin up against his opponent, Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins. While Giuliani lost the 1989 race to Dinkins, he’d laid the groundwork for his political future, seeded with the image of New York City as lawless and dangerous, prowled by super-predators and soon-to-be mismanaged by a Black mayor who lacked police support.
Rudy Giuliani successfully allied himself with law enforcement and mobilized the police and their unions to support him, and in1993 he beat David Dinkins in a rematch, but not before helping to incite a riot of thousands of mostly white police officers. Upwards of 10,000 off-duty cops blocked traffic all around City Hall, many drinking, some carrying guns, some smashing store windows, and jumping on the cars of terrified motorists. And there at the center of it all stood the would-be-mayor, Rudy Giuliani, excoriating incumbent David Dinkins through a bullhorn, with some in the crowd using the n-word to describe Dinkins.
Giuliani understood instinctively that no mayor could survive without the support of law enforcement and their unions. For him, it only made sense to double down on his “law and order” brand, taking office in a year in which the city saw nearly 2,000 murders, and tacitly blaming the crime rate on one population: poor Black people. In his first term, he hired William J. Bratton as the commissioner, and the NYPD adopted a strategy called “broken windows.” The idea behind the policing strategy was that combating minor illegal activity -- such as smoking marijuana or public urination -- would ease a perception of more violent crime and deter would-be criminals. In effect, however, the actions were often seen as a way to unfairly target poor people and minority communities.
While it is true that crime began to fall in the mid-1990s, the extent to which the broken windows policing strategy is responsible has been hotly debated and there are conflicting studies as to its ultimate impact. Still, Bratton was behind the strategy, and Giuliani wanted the credit, leading the two men to part ways in 1996. Racial tensions that went unaddressed under Bratton’s short tenure flared after he left, exacerbated by ugly incidents that plagued Giuliani:
- The 1997 sexual battery of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, took place in a bathroom at Brooklyn’s 70th precinct. Giuliani publicly defended the officers.
- In 1999, police shot and killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Ethiopian immigrant when he opened his apartment door in the Bronx. Giuliani called the shooting a tragedy but outrage mounted after the four officers who fired 41 shots at the unarmed man were acquitted of 2nd degree murder.
- In 2000, Patrick Dorismond, yet another unarmed black man, was fatally shot by police, this time near Madison Square Garden. The mayor supported the officers and drew the rancor of many people of color.
Giuliani was on his way out of office and dropping in the polls on September 11, 2001. But with his take-charge demeanor, Giuliani was able to instantly regain the public trust—a political trump card he used to vastly boost police budgets and investigative powers. Such was his popularity, his endorsement of political neophyte Michael Bloomberg helped propel him to victory.
After leaving office, Giuliani went into the private sector, then mounted a run for president in 2008, seeking to capitalize on his national profile. He was an early front-runner, even leading some polls, but his strategy of banking on the Florida primary flopped. He dropped out before Super Tuesday.
Fast-forward to 2016, when Giuliani hitched his wagon to Donald Trump. His rhetoric seemed to grow darker. He would become one of Trump’s most loyal lieutenants and eventually his personal attorney, defending his every move. His efforts to dig up dirt on the Biden family placed him at the center of the Ukrainian pressure campaign that got Trump impeached. Then, in the aftermath of the 2020 election, Giuliani led the effort to subvert the results, traveling the country peddling baseless conspiracy theories. On January 6, he helped rile up the crowd before the storming of the Capitol, declaring: “Let’s have trial by combat.”
By now, many New Yorkers have come to regard Giuliani as unhinged, out
of touch with reality. He’s continued to make public appearances, like a
recent news conference bashing Mayor Bill de Blasio. “The mayor has
several problems,” Giuliani said. “He is lazy, and he’s stupid.” He is now, however, more routinely interrupted by hecklers. Giuliani also recently had his law license suspended. Federal investigators are also probing his foreign lobbying work and he also
faces civil penalties for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential
election. He is a distorted shadow of the man once the source of strength for many Americans 20 years ago.
What is steady and unwavering is Americans' ability to unite in the face of tragedy and honor the memories of those who fell, as well as those who rose to the occasion to becomes heroes. I'm hoping that this 20th anniversary will help to heal the divisions in this country and bring us all together once again to fight and defeat the current pandemic once and for all.
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