Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, told reporters last week that his 20-year-old daughter's shoplifting arrest was a "private matter. And, it's going to stay that way." But the Daily News columnist Michael Daly questions Giuliani's bid to keep his family business quiet, pointing out how the tough-on-crime mayor released the juvenile record of an unarmed man killed by police in 2000:
Giuliani even released a sealed juvenile record of Patrick Dorismond's arrest for robbery and assault when he was just 13.
"People have the right to know the background and record of a person involved in a criminal situation," he said, adding darkly, "He's no altar boy."
Giuliani failed to mention that the juvenile arrest arose from when Dorismond punched another kid in the nose in a dispute over a quarter and that the charges had been dropped before the case even went before a judge.
Nor did Giuliani mention that Dorismond's arrests for assault and weapon possession as an adult had been reduced to disorderly conduct, a violation.
In fact, Dorismond had never been convicted of a crime.
On top of that, Dorismond actually had been an altar boy, at Holy Cross Church in Brooklyn.
Patrick Dorismond fought with an undercover police officer in Midtown after the cop asked him where he could buy marijuana and was killed by the cop's 9mm gun, at a range where the gun was likely touching his clothing, and the incident raised questions about policing, as well as Giuliani's handling of the matter (even some Republicans thought he did a poor job.) The matter was eventually settled by the city.
Daly also points out, "One criminal record that law-and-order Rudy had never felt a need to reveal was that of his own father, who was not only arrested, but convicted of the armed robbery of a milkman. Giuliani often railed about the evils of parole, but unless my math is wrong, he was conceived while his father was on early release. Were it not for parole, there might be another Rudy running around, but not this one." Of course, is it any surprise that Giuliani has selective memory? Remember how he said that there were no terrorist attacks during George W. Bush's presidency? Or his reversal on trying terrorists in courts?
