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Bloomberg and NY Police Shooting

By Philip Klein on 11.27.06 @ 3:23PM

In the wake of a tragic NY police shooting over the weekend, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is going out of his way to condemn the cops, clearly seeking to avoid being attacked like Giuliani was when he stood behind police following the accidental shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999. By way of background, early this past Saturday morning in Queens, a groom out with friends for his bachelor party was shot and killed by police after a series of events in which he ran into an undercover police officer with his car and hit an undercover police van, and then cops fired 50 shots. In 1999, when an unarmed immigrant, Diallo, was shot 41 times when police investigating a rape in his Bronx neighborhood confused his reaching for a wallet with reaching for a gun, Giuliani urged New Yorkers to avoid rushing to judgement and to wait until all the facts were in. Bloomberg, facing similar protests and pressure from the likes of Al Sharpton, has struck a different tone:

Saying he did not want to jump to a conclusion in a case that is still under investigation, the mayor nonetheless used words like "unacceptable," "inexplicable" and "deeply disturbing" to describe the shooting outside a nightclub early Saturday. Asked if he was referring to the number of shots fired by police, the mayor said he was.