Rudy Giuliani would crush Occupy Wall Street? Oh, for shame

on November 17, 2011 at 7:38 PM, updated November 17, 2011 at 7:45 PM
Rudy-Giuliani.JPGFormer New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani visits FOX & Friends at FOX Studios in New York City in this May 2011 file photo.

Rudy Giuliani must be kidding. He’s boasting that he would have squashed Occupy Wall Street on day one. He called the protesters “disgruntled bums” and “leftover hippies from the '60s and '70s.”

Ah yes, the former mayor of New York City invoking law and order. Let’s pause to recall that Giuliani’s police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, is now serving a four-year prison sentence on corruption charges.

But that’s not the worst of it. Giuliani reportedly delivered a speech at an economic conference in China last week. He said the first question he was asked was about Occupy Wall Street.


God forbid China should think we’re a country that allows protests without mowing down people in the streets.

Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested during financial district sit-in Occupy Wall Street protesters vowed to shut down Wall Street this morning, streaming from Zucotti Park at 7 a.m. and flooding the financial district. Chanting protesters gathered at entrances to the New York Stock Exchange, sometimes clashing with riot police. Protestors blocking an intersection were arrested. (Video by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger)

Giuliani, a man who wanted to be president of the United States, must have had a Rick Perry-type brain freeze. How else to explain his amnesia about Tiananmen Square, and the tanks that barreled through when Chinese students and others took a stand for democratic freedoms?

Giuliani should hang his head in shame that pictures of bloodied protesters in New York City have circled the globe. This was a police action that attempted to limit media coverage. China has been there, done that.

Police clash with Occupy Wall Street protesters near New York Stock Exchange Occupy Wall Street protesters chanted "This is a non-violent protest," and "Put away your riot gear, I don't see no riot here," in a tense standoff with police near the New York Stock Exchange this morning. But a confrontation between a protester and police led to a string of arrests as the Occupy movement's "Day of Action" got underway. The man arrested was trying to leave to join another protest. (Video by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger)

Yes, Rudy Giuliani, the whole world is watching. But what they see is a city’s legacy of political openness and tolerance in tatters.

Live coverage of the Occupy Wall Street day of action