The orchestrated drumbeat for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly to run for mayor is more than a little unsettling, because if the man responsible for stopping-and-frisking 684,330 people in New York, the vast majority of them black or Hispanic, is thought to be doing such a great job that he should now be mayor, then it ought to give the black and brown community cause for a pause, seeing the fear and the openness of the repression that is gaining prominence.
On the ground in Brooklyn, where you see poverty block by block, the economic segregation that is worthy of news when it comes from overseas, is an everyday occurrence in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York, where relatively expensive restaurants are packed and police towers and mobile units dot the streets, keeping them what is called “safe”.
A part of this repressive push is the continuous, almost tribal attacks on Comptroller John Liu and the astonishing dismissal of him as a mayoral candidate, most recently in a “poll” in the New York Daily News. The reason is clear: they, meaning the 1%ers and those they have in their thrall, have looked at his record as comptroller and know to a man, that they do not want that thinking in the Mayor’s office.
These white-haired gentlemen in their suits and ties, have felt Liu repeatedly go into their pockets, expanding minority participation here, finding money hidden away there, paying back wages and correcting contracts and saving the city hundreds of millions of dollars. That’s money and power that did not accrue to their class and those folks are not happy. They know that Liu does not share their history of accepting white supremacy and privilege, and since he’s not a member of that club, he is unreliable.
Instead this “poll” offers Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio, Former Comptroller William Thompson and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and suggests that an ideal mayoral race would be between Ray Kelly and City Council President Christine Quinn.
That’s a race from hell and the back of the hand to the black and brown communities of the city, but let them get their wish. It’ll clear the way for a new coalition to march on the ballot box. We’ve been there and done that, but please know that if we don’t win this time, there may not be another chance.