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Rudy Giuliani

(Redirected from Rudolph Giuliani)

Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani III, KBE (born May 28, 1944) served as the Mayor of New York City from January 1, 1994 through December 31, 2001.

"Leadership" by Rudy Giuliani

Giuliani first gained national prominence as the federal U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In that position he prosecuted numerous high-profile cases, including indictments of leading Wall Street figures Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken for insider trading. Giuliani attracted some criticism for arranging very public arrests of people, then dropping charges for lack of evidence instead of going to trial.

Giuliani was subsequently appointed the third-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice. He successfully argued on behalf of the U.S. government, in a high-profile case, that there was "no political repression" in Haiti under President Jean-Claude Duvalier, aka "Baby Doc".

Giuliani first ran as the Republican candidate for mayor in 1989 but he lost the contest to succeed Ed Koch to Democrat David Dinkins. In 1993 he successfully ran against incumbent Dinkins in an election that divided the city, primarily on racial lines (especially after the intervention on Dinkins' behalf of President Bill Clinton).


In his first term as mayor, Giuliani pursued an aggressive and very public policing policy. Although detractors note that the crime rate was already steadily declining when Giuliani entered office, due largely to the economic boom of the Clinton years, Giuliani is often credited with 'cleaning up' New York City. His focus on this issue in press conferences and other public events, combined with the declining crime rate, convinced the media and the public that New York city was no longer a crime-infested metropolis.

However, Giuliani's aggressive tactics, described by former Mayor Dinkins as assuming that the ends justify the means (interview with CourtTV ), required vastly more arrests when criminal descriptions were vague. Many argue that the NYPD's new policies curtailed the civil liberties of innocent citizens, particularly minorities. Even the Deputy Mayor, Rudy Washington, was subjected to harassment by NYPD. Of numerous instances of unarmed black men killed or brutalized by NYPD under the Giuliani administration, the best-known are the shooting of Amadou Diallo and the assault of Abner Louima.


Giuliani pursued similarly aggressive real estate policies. The Times Square redevelopment project saw Times Square transformed from a run-down center for businesses ranging from tourist attractions to peep shows to a high-price district filled with family-oriented stores and theaters, including the MTV studios and a massive Disney store and theater. Throughout his term, Giuliani pursued the construction of new sports stadiums in Manhattan, a goal at which he did not succeed, though new minor league baseball stadiums opened in Brooklyn, for the Brooklyn Cyclones, and in Staten Island, for the Staten Island Yankees.

Giuliani, after being elected, avoided one-on-one interviews with the press, preferring to only speak to them at press conferences or on the steps of City Hall. Giuliani made frequent visits to The Late Show with David Letterman television show, sometimes appearing as a guest and sometimes participating in comedy segments. In one highly publicized appearance that took place shortly after his election, Giuliani filled a pothole in the street outside the Ed Sullivan theater.

He ran an aborted campaign for U.S. Senate in 2000 against Hillary Rodham Clinton, withdrawing because of prostate cancer and the fallout from his relationship with Judith Nathan (he was married at the time to Donna Hanover , but they later divorced, and in late 2002 he became engaged to marry Nathan). He and Hanover have one son and one daughter. He married Nathan in May 2003.

Since the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on the World Trade Center, Giuliani has been widely hailed for his calm and effective leadership in the crisis. For this, he was named TIME magazine's Person of the Year for 2001 and was given an honorary knighthood by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom on February 13, 2002, entitling him to style himself "Rudolph Giuliani KBE".

Quotes

  • "We only see the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. 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."


Preceded by :
David Dinkins
Mayors of New York Succeeded by:
Michael Bloomberg


Rudy Giuliani first started out as a Democrat, before changing to register as an Independent. Afterward, he finally decided on being a Republican.



Last updated: 10-24-2004 05:10:45