As the time approaches for the 2008 Republican primary for the US presidential election we are seeing one hat already in the ring, that of former New York City mayor, Rudolph Giuliani.
The “Draft Rudy” campaign has already been established and the counter-Rudy forces are not one step behind in drawing their line in the sand.
If this political documentary is any example there will not be an untruth left hidden or a half-truth left undebated. Indeed, in the history of hot presidential elections, the 2008 presidential may turn out to be one of the pot-boilers of all time, especially if former first lady Hilary Clinton also opts to take up the mantle for the Democrats.
This admittedly point-of-view documentary features face-time with an illustrious list of New York and national activists, pols and pundits including extensive archival footage of Giuliani himself.
Wayne Barrett, senior editor of the venerable Big Apple independent, the Village Voice weekly, and author of "Rudy! An Investigative Biography" (2000) weighs in with heavy duty criticism of the man who would be president.
William Bratton, Giuliani’s former chief of police and right-hand man in making the “broken windows” policy a reality gives his side of the story.
Mary Brosnahan, of the Coalition for the Homeless, provides her opinion of what the former mayor really did for the city’s homeless.
Former mayors David Dinkins and Ed Koch comment on Giuliani’s zero-tolerance policy and reputation for random “stop and frisk” policies that disregarded probable cause and focused on blacks and Hispanics as guilty until proven innocent.
Rudy Crew describes what it was like to champion the needs of schools in the city’s minority ghettos while Giuliani hardened his stance against the city’s have-nots.
Looking back over the past 15 years in the city, there is no question that there has been a “pre-Rudy” time and a “post-Rudy” time, and the post-Rudy time is a lot better for those who are in positions to take advantage of it.
The city is cleaned up, crime is down and business profits (and housing rental rates) are skyrocketing.
The debate lies in how much of these improvements were directly related to the former mayor’s policies and how much of the improvement would have happened anyway as part of national trends in the same direction. Suffice it to say that opinions are mixed.
But even more serious in the context of Giuliani’s’ presidential aspirations is his track record on human rights and improving the quality of life of poor and working class citizens.
The most damning interviews in the film are of members of the police establishment who testify that their mayor’s administration used the zero tolerance “broken windows” policy to conduct random searches, including strip searches, of targeted minorities, completely without probable cause.
Former NYC Police Commissioner Bratton, the man who enacted the NYC incarnation of zero tolerance says, “...that’s ultimately going to be the great failing...of this mayor. ...a city of immigrants just don’t trust the mayor because he’s unable to put himself in their shoes.” That’s strong language from a former right-hand man who is famous to this day for heading up efforts to make safe the streets of Gotham.
But the story goes beyond the abrogation of civil rights to what many report as the sham of welfare reform in NYC. Cloaked as a form of “workfare” wherein former welfare recipients were taken off the welfare roles and put to work, the working poor were condemned to low paying jobs that could neither support them or provide them the wherewithal for training for better jobs.
Although they were off the dole, they never got one step closer to making a better life for themselves. The day they stopped sweeping streets they were right back where they started.
Giuliani started off as a prosecuting attorney and has made big hay of the dual conservative icons of reducing crime and reducing welfare. But if the former was a national trend that was accelerated in New York only through the use of unconstitutional search and seizure and if the latter was a sham that hid the unemployable, what was really gained?
This film is two hours jam-packed with interviews, history and an extensive analysis of one of the most famous administrations in America.
A very good documentary that is only the tip of the iceberg of what we will see in the next two years.
Take it with a grain of salt? Absolutely. But the interest in this documentary can only heat up between now and the big one in 2008.
Limited release New York City, USA May 19th. No MPAA rating
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