Bloomberg: Police Should Strike Until I Get What I Want
Seth Mandel | @SethAMandel
07.24.2012 - 12:00 PM
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/07/24/bloomberg-police-should-strike-until-gun-control-legislation/
When it became clear that the Occupy Wall Street encampment in lower Manhattan was a health and safety danger riddled with sexual assaults, Mayor Michael Bloomberg took action… eventually. After a couple of months. New Yorkers already knew that Bloomberg was no Rudy Giuliani, who combined smart conservative policymaking with a dedication to the city’s safety, security, and dignity. But they learned something else as Bloomberg watched businesses close and the violence spread: Bloomberg was willing to sacrifice public safety to make grand political gestures.
And they learned that lesson again yesterday. Bloomberg, who is as pro-gun control as anyone with his own army, went on Piers Morgan’s show and revealed that the Occupy protests seemed to have left a special place in his heart for subjecting the city to periodic bursts of anarchy:
“I don’t understand why police officers across this country don’t stand up collectively and say we’re going to go on strike, we’re not going to protect you unless you, the public, through your legislature, do what’s required to keep us safe,’’ he told CNN’s Piers Morgan.
Bloomberg made this astonishingly dangerous remark in response to the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, demanding new tougher gun control legislation. Let’s put aside for the moment the fact that the suspect in this case was building sophisticated bombs in his apartment, and probably would not have been deterred by gun laws. Bloomberg has always had some difficulty with cause and effect–he suggested the Times Square bomber, a self-proclaimed jihadist, was really just angry about President Obama’s health care bill.
And let’s put aside, also, the fact that just as he doesn’t abide by various prohibitions he tries to force on the commoners, Bloomberg’s own safety would never be in doubt. Just yours. And try to put aside the irony of Bloomberg threatening to figuratively put a gun to the public’s head to pass gun control legislation they oppose.
Actually, don’t put any of that aside. Just remember, the next time someone accuses conservatives of holding the country hostage over policy disagreements, Bloomberg has shown us what that would actually look like.
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