it just happened

Bloomberg Breaks Mayoral Precedent, Suggests Police Attack on Unarmed Man Was Perhaps a Bit Much

20061127bloomberg.jpg

Bloomberg this afternoon.Photo: The New York Times


Bloomberg just held a press conference about the Queens shooting over the weekend in which cops fired some 50 bullets, killing one unarmed man and injuring two others. “It sounds to me like excessive force was used,” said the mayor, and this quote gets headline treatment in the Times. It seems a little obvious that this was excessive, doesn’t it? Well, yes. But, then again, it also isn’t Giuliani’s famous Patrick Dorismond quote: “[The media would] not want a picture presented of an altar boy, when in fact, maybe it isn’t an altar boy, it’s some other situation that may justify, more closely, what the police officer did.” Ah, the march of progress.

Mayor Says Shooting Was ‘Excessive’ [NYT]
Giuliani Cites Criminal Past of Slain Man [NYT]

Bloomberg Breaks Mayoral Precedent, Suggests Police Attack on Unarmed Man Was Perhaps a Bit Much