Price of Ambition: A City Under Arrest

I committed an act of civil disobedience the other day. I spat in public, an unlawful act. Sign Up For

I committed an act of civil disobedience the other day. I spat in public, an unlawful act.

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Look, I’m not proud of this. I have a slight cold, you see, and I’m pretty congested, and, well, sometimes you just have to evacuate the old throat and nasal passages. But because I had just finished reading last week’s issue of this salmon-hued newspaper, I checked for blue uniforms before making this admittedly disgusting deposit into a conveniently located storm sewer. As The Observer reported in its April 3 edition, these days a little public evacuation can get you arrested, strip-searched and sent to the Tombs for double-digit hours with only dry cereal to sustain you.

Operation Condor, the petty-bust police sweeps that are doing so much to add to Mayor Giuliani’s crime-fighting record, ought to have minor-league perps like myself living in fear. Indeed, one needn’t be a perp at all to be fearful: As Patrick Dorismond would have found out, had he lived through the experience, innocent New Yorkers can be going about their business-crossing at the green, not in between, etc.-and still come into rough contact with quota-addled police officers from Operation Condor. Even in his last moments, Dorismond had no idea that he was dealing with police officers, for they were in plainclothes, baiting him into becoming a statistic.

The Observer’s story last week, and a similar story in The New York Times shortly thereafter, created a media storm because it included several devastating quotes from veteran police officers who have had it with the Mayor’s attempts to win higher office through ham-handed policing. Typically, Mr. Giuliani dismissed these criticisms as politically motivated. Apparently that’s the worst he can say about his police critics, which suggests that the officers in question have exemplary records. If they didn’t, it’s a fair bet we’d know about it by now. After all, dissent in the Giuliani era is met with the kind of smear campaign and lies that people like Peggy Noonan and George Will associate with the Clintons, and only the Clintons.

The professional haters of Hillary Clinton soon will have to come to terms with the undeniable fact that the man they wish to see defeat the First Lady, Mr. Giuliani, may have a great deal in common with their cartoon version of the Clintons. They accuse Mrs. Clinton of ambition; Mr. Giuliani’s ambitions have been on display for 15 years. They accuse Mrs. Clinton of besmirching the reputations of critics; during the Giuliani administration, a motorist in the Bronx who complained about a stop sign had his arrest record made public. And Mr. Will quoted approvingly Ms. Noonan’s sneering reference to the cynical bargain the Clintons have presumably made with each other. Have these people taken a long look at the city’s First Marriage recently, or do they pass judgment only on Democratic domestic arrangements? As a matter of fact, have these keepers of other people’s private affairs noted that at least the Clintons, despite their well-known domestic problems, have remained married, as opposed to those critics with a divorce or two on their marital record?

Much is being made, and Ms. Noonan joins in the chorus, of public expenditures made in the name of advancing Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. This is not particularly newsworthy, as anybody who has been around politics knows. But if we are to consider the ways in which public funds are being used for political purposes, how about an accounting for the money poured into the criminal justice system to process minor arrests made only to fulfill City Hall’s mandate for numbers so mighty that even the most persnickety upstate voter will be impressed. The tab for Operation Condor ought to be sent directly to the Giuliani campaign, for it is a political, not a policing, operation.

As interesting as it was to read Officer John Loud’s declaration, “It’s time to put the gun away and go and work with the community,” last week’s Observer story contained a chilling passage that, in its precise detail, tells us exactly what Mr. Giuliani is willing inflict on his fellow New Yorkers in the name of law, order and ambition. Describing a recent Operation Condor sweep through the Lower East Side, The Observer reported that a half-dozen suspects were rounded up, photographed, fingerprinted, strip-searched- strip-searched -and taken to the Tombs, where they were held for 18 hours with no pillow or blanket. The crimes were minor drug violations that will be dismissed, indeed, laughed out of court. But Operation Condor and Mayor Giuliani will have six more arrests to brag about.

The Observer reported that one officer was overheard saying: “We’re just ruining people’s lives now.”

Ah, but it’s all for the greater good-the defeat of an ambitious, scheming First Lady. Thank goodness for Rudolph Giuliani, the noble alternative to the evil Hillary Clinton.

Price of Ambition: A City Under Arrest