On Tuesday, the historical revisionists at MSNBC were hard at work trying to credit former New York City Mayor David Dinkins with the drop in crime that happened under his successor, Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Joy Reid even condemned Giuliani for daring to offer condolences to his former political rival, and tried to link the New York Republican with those who aimed racial epithets at Dinkins, even while speaking with Al Sharpton who previously derided Dinkins with the same slur.
On The ReidOut, after noting the passing of the New York Democrat, Reid recalled a rowdy protest by police officers from 1992 in which some allegedly called then-Mayor Dinkins by racial epithets, with the MSNBC host then trying to hang the bad behavior on Giuliani:
I'm sure that you can guess the ugly racist slur we bleeped out which was hurled at the sitting mayor of New York. ... So when the same Rudy Giuliani whose seemingly singular goal as the next mayor was to undo everything Dinkins tried to do -- particularly when it came to making policing less onerous and less bullying and less deadly for black New Yorkers -- when he offers condolences to Mayor Dinkins ... you should take that with the same seriousness you give Rudy's legal maneuvers.
She then added: "In fact, if anything, Rudy was the original Donald Trump -- the un-Dinkins -- just as Trump was the un-Obama -- designed as if in a laboratory to put white grievance against an historical black elected leader into human form."
It was not mentioned that Dinkins was criticized for mishandling the NYPD response to the deadly Crown Heights riots of 1991 which caused many injuries and likely multiple deaths.
Reid soon took a couple of shots at former Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and hatefully rejected the offer of condolences by Giuliani:
In an era when it seemed like the whole world was at war with black America from the Nixon-plotted, Reagan-boosted war on drugs to the plague of crack cocaine and violence on our streets that led directly to the 1994 crime bill to the indifference and cruelty of the police, Dinkins dared to try to make a difference. And we all paid for his brief but hopeful tenure with the first Trump -- the original Trump -- the Trump named Rudy. So save your condolences, Rudy. Tell it to Landscaping or whomever you think is hiding the 8,000,000 Trump votes in Germany. We don't want to hear from you.
After trying to link use of a racial slur against Dinkins onto Giuliani, Reid then ironically brought aboard fellow host Sharpton as a guest, who has previously admitted to having actually used the same slur against Dinkins himself.
Without giving credit to Mayor Giuliani and NYPD police officers for saving the lives of many black New York residents in the 1990s, Reid suggested that police officers are "free to kill at will" as she recalled:
We started off by really talking about the way that Dinkins was taken out of office by Rudy Giuliani -- by this rage that Giuliani stoked that was already there in the police against what Mayor Dinkins wanted to do, which was change policing. I feel like we're having kind of a rerun of that conversation about Black Lives Matter about whether or not police should be free to kill at will in black communities. He tried to do something about it.
Sharpton laughably tried to transfer credit for solving New York's crime problem from Giuliani onto Dinkins: as he laughably claimed: "He revitalized Times Square. He started this whole community policing. And, in many ways, you are more than correct, Joy -- it's almost like, to study Donald Trump, you have to study Rudy Giuliani. They took credit for things that their predecessors did, and they used race to try and rev up a political career."
In fact, after homicides reached a record high of 1,905 in 1989 the year before Dinkins's term began, the number of homicides exceeded the previous record high all four years when he was in office, dropping modestly his second and third year, and holding about even between his third fourth years at 1,995 and 1,960, respectively.
By contrast, homicides dropped more than 20 percent the first year Giuliani came into office and reached a 30-year low by the end of his first term.
Earlier in the day, Morning Joe also tried to give much of the credit for cutting crime on Dinkins, and, later on, fill-in anchor Chris Jansing suggested that "racism pure and simple" was to blame for Dinkins being voted out of office as she quoted from his book.
The historical revision seen on The ReidOut was sponsored in part by Tommie Copper. Their contact information is linked.
Transcripts follow:
MSNBC
Morning Joe
November 24, 2020
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Dinkins is credited with leading a crackdown on violent crime and helping revitalize Times Square. He also oversaw the establishment of restaurant week and fashion week. Mayor Dinkins was 93 years.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: So, Jonathan Lemire, obviously Mayor Dinkins a trailblazer. Rudy Giuliani himself has actually come out with praise, positive words for Mayor Dinkins. He was mayor of New York City during some of its toughest years, 1989 to 1993. Racial unrest was extraordinarily high. We were in the middle of a crack epidemic as well as the AIDS epidemic was continuing also, a heroine epidemic. This was a city that in 1989, when he assumed office, was already at a breaking point.
JONATHAN LEMIRE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Mayor Dinkins inherited a very difficult hand -- fiscal turmoil, surging crime rates, a very high murder rate in New York City, as you said, drug epidemics as well. He was sort of a calm, steady hand -- historic election, of course, the city's first black mayor, a Harlem Democrat, soft-spoken, very different than the mayors like Mayor Koch who preceded him and then Mayor Giuliani, an extraordinarily classy character, Dinkins, and, you know, he only served one term.
Voters rejected his handling of the Crown Heights riots which happened during his watch, But he is someone who history is already starting to view more kindly -- he does indeed -- Giuliani gets a lot of the credit in New York City for driving down the crime rate in the 1990s, but it was Dinkins -- that drop began under Dinkins who also expanded dramatically the size of the NYPD, and the extra officers playing a vital role in bringing down crime rates and making New York City safer.
(...)
WILLIE GEIST: He took office on January 1, 1990 -- that is the peak of bad New York as it was known in the 1980s and the early '90s. So it was the most murders in the history of the city happened in 1990. And, as Jonathan points out, Mayor Dinkins took steps -- he added money by 25 percent -- he added cops -- he hired a bunch more cops -- he put police out. So, yes, Mayor Giuliani deserves credit for what he did, but this did all begin with Mayor Dinkins cleaning up of Times Square, the lowering of the crime rate
(...)
JOE SCARBOROUGH: We, of course, gave much of the credit -- most of the credit -- to Rudy Giuliani -- and he deserved a lot of the credit -- but also, as you correctly point out, the revitalization of Times Square, which was so important -- the cleaning up of the heart of the city began under Mayor Dinkins as did the increased number of police officers. Rudy Giuliani came in and took those advantages and did a lot with it and turned New York City around. But I'm glad to see this morning that many of Mayor Dinkins's adversaries are recognizing that.
(..)
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
November 24, 2020
9:24 a.m. Eastern
CHRIS JANSING: But first before we go, New York is remembering its first and only black mayor, David Dinkins. He passed away yesterday at 93 from natural causes. Dinkins was born in New Jersey, moved to Harlem to live with his mom in 1927. At the time, black people weren't allowed to use the school swimming pool.
Dinkins held a series of fairly low-level elected and appointed positions before being elected mayor. In his memoir, he attributed his failed re-election bid to "racism, pure and simple," is how he put it. He'd go on to become a professor, a radio talk show host, and elder Democratic statesman. Dinkins's wife, Joyce, passed away a little more than a month ago.
(...)
MSNBC
The ReidOut
November 24, 2020
7:47 p.m. Eastern
JOY REID: In the center of the mayhem standing on top of a car, cursing Mayor Dinkins through a bullhorn, was mayoral candidate Rudy Giuliani. Dinkins described the ugly protests the following day during a press conference.
MAYOR DAVID DINKINS (D-NEW YORK CITY) (dated September 17, 1992) ): But some of them out there yesterday who were calling out n*****, for instance, why would the people of our community have confidence that they have the capacity to handle a tense situation in a minority community.
REID: I'm sure that you can guess the ugly racist slur we bleeped out which was hurled at the sitting mayor of New York. We euphemize it as "the N word." So when the same Rudy Giuliani whose seemingly singular goal as the next mayor was to undo everything Dinkins tried to do -- particularly when it came to making policing less onerous and less bullying and less deadly for black New Yorkers -- when he offers condolences to Mayor Dinkins who died peacefully at his home last night at age 93 less than two months after the death of his beloved wife Joyce, you should take that with the same seriousness you give Rudy's legal maneuvers.
In fact, if anything, Rudy was the original Donald Trump -- the un-Dinkins -- just as Trump was the un-Obama -- designed as if in a laboratory to put white grievance against an historical black elected leader into human form.
(...)
On the day after famed tennis champion Arthur Ashe announcing he was HIV positive. Dinkins named the city's first coordinator for AIDS policy, Ronald Johnson, who is himself HIV positive. As the virus tore through the gay community nationwide following years of neglect by the Reagan administration.
(...)
In an era when it seemed like the whole world was at war with black America from the Nixon-plotted, Reagan-boosted war on drugs to the plague of crack cocaine and violence on our streets that led directly to the 1994 crime bill to the indifference and cruelty of the police, Dinkins dared to try to make a difference. And we all paid for his brief but hopeful tenure with the first Trump -- the original Trump -- the Trump named Rudy. So save your condolences, Rudy. Tell it to Four Seasons Landscaping or whomever you think is hiding the 8,000,000 Trump votes in Germany. We don't want to hear from you.
(...)
7:57 p.m.
We started off by really talking about the way that Dinkins was taken out of office by Rudy Giuliani -- by this rage that Giuliani stoked that was already there in the police against what Mayor Dinkins wanted to do, which was change policing. I feel like we're having kind of a rerun of that conversation about Black Lives Matter about whether or not police should be free to kill at will in black communities. He tried to do something about it. What do you take from that fight? Is it dispiriting to think that after great men like this have tried -- after you have tried after we've had all of these movements -- we're till fighting about this?
(...)
AL SHARPTON: He revitalized Times Square. He started this whole community policing. And, in many ways, you are more than correct, Joy -- it's almost like, to study Donald Trump, you have to study Rudy Giuliani. They took credit for things that their predecessors did, and they used race to try and rev up a political career.
