Mayor Giuliani yesterday told a federal civil-rights panel investigating alleged police brutality that the NYPD is a disciplined force that cut crime while still showing restraint.
The mayor, sitting alone at the witness table, said NYPD officers fire their weapons and kill civilians less frequently than other major cities.
“Fatal shootings by police officers in New York has declined rather dramatically,” he told the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, one of at least three agencies investigating police brutality.
Police Commissioner Howard Safir also answered the subpoena to testify at the Doubletree Suites hotel in Midtown.
The mayor defended “stop-and-frisks” – which Commission counsel Edward Hailes said ensnare people guilty only of “walking while black” – on the grounds that police question people based on descriptions from victims.
“Sixty-three percent of people stopped were African-Americans, but 71.6 percent of the assailants described by victims were African-American,” Giuliani said, while a group of 20 protesters at the open hearing taunted “He’s on crack” and “Liar!”
The Rev. Al Sharpton said Giuliani’s interpretation of the stop-and-frisk numbers was “close to a public policy of racial profiling.”
“All blacks become suspects,” Sharpton said before testifying.
He called for federal oversight of the NYPD to ensure “a diverse police force and a real strategy for dealing with police abuse.”
The Pittsburgh police force was placed under federal control in 1997 for a “pattern of abuse.”