NationStates Jolt Archive


Ex NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Eutrusca
01-06-2005, 14:42
NOTE: This article was written by the person who nominated Mayor Giuliani for the Nobel Peace Prize. He makes a good case for doing so, IMHO.


The Peacemaker (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/opinion/01wastberg.html?th&emc=th)

By OLLE WASTBERG

Published: June 1, 2005
Stockholm

TODAY I will send a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee nominating the former mayor of New York City, Rudolph W. Giuliani, for the Nobel Peace Prize. As a former member of the Swedish Parliament I have the right to submit nominees - in the past I nominated Elie Wiesel, who won in 1986 - and I selected Mr. Giuliani because I believe that he has, through his political efforts, saved more human lives than most people alive today.

Mr. Giuliani took office in 1994, when the city was rife with gang violence, rundown neighborhoods, robbery, graffiti and litter. The police had lost the daily battle against serious crime. The mayor brought with him a policy of rethinking the fight against crime - a policy that proved to be effective even after he left office: a quick comparison of crime rates collected by the Police Department in 1993 with those from last year show that murders went down by 76.2 percent; rapes by 41.1 percent; robberies by 74.2 percent; assaults by 57.5 percent; burglaries by 77.3 percent; grand larcenies by 45.7 percent; and car thefts by 84.5 percent.

Or, in more human terms, it would appear that over the last 12 years the policies Mr. Giuliani put in place have spared New York perhaps 10,000 murders, 15,000 rapes and 800,000 robberies. This is clearly a humanitarian accomplishment of great magnitude.

In my letter to Oslo, I stress that the Giuliani administration's crime policy was unique in two ways. First was its concentration on crime prevention rather than arrests. I was invited to several statistics-review meetings in which the mayor and his commissioners examined crime trends with the Police Department's top officers. Interestingly, these police chiefs were primarily held responsible for the number of crimes reported rather than for the percentage of crimes solved. A chief who did not keep crime statistics low risked losing his job. The other unique contribution was the campaign against so-called quality-of-life crimes. The theory is that if an area becomes rundown, if young men are allowed to urinate against walls, if graffiti proliferate, then the public's sense of security will deteriorate. The need for security guards and surveillance cameras increases, and society as a whole becomes more closed. The trust necessary in a modern society requires vigilance against such crimes that disturb the peace.

Thus, for example, the Police Department's successful effort under Mr. Giuliani to reduce robberies and graffiti in the subway was based on catching turnstile jumpers. The theory was that a person who planned to spray-paint subway cars or rob passengers would not buy a ticket. Stopping the jumpers thus cut down on other crimes. New York's quick recovery as a tourism destination after Sept. 11, 2001, despite the remaining terrorist threat, can be attributed to awareness that New York had become one of the world's safest cities.

Is all of this solely to Mr. Giuliani's credit? No, far from it. His policy was based on the scientific work of the sociologists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, who also served as mayoral advisers. Mr. Giuliani's first police commissioner, William Bratton, played a central role. But it is Rudy Giuliani who personified the policy, took significant political risks and consistently supported a considerably demoralized police force.

Mr. Giuliani's detractors like to claim that his crime-prevention program unduly harmed racial minorities and increased tensions among the city's ethnic groups. This perception is largely false: most victims of crime in New York were and are members of minority groups; gang violence among Wall Street bankers is a rare thing. The people who suffer most from an ineffectual police force are poor people in bad residential areas, and they gained the most from Mr. Giuliani's successes.

Another common objection is that "crime just moved somewhere else." This, too, is not true. The number of reported crimes decreased more or less consistently in all 123 police districts. And while the substantial drop in the use of crack and other drugs since the early 90's may be attributable to many factors, including AIDS and the nation's economic boom, there is no denying that police intervention was a major one.

The Nobel Peace Prize long ago freed itself from the directives of Alfred Nobel's will, in which the focus was on contributions of the international peace conferences of that time. It now often goes to people like Mother Teresa and last year's winner, Wangari Maathai, who have made humanitarian contributions. The civic actions symbolized by Rudolph W. Giuliani deserve equal recognition.
Myrmidonisia
01-06-2005, 15:01
It should really be a thorn in Clintons side, after all the campaigning he did for it.
Eutrusca
01-06-2005, 15:03
It should really be a thorn in Clintons side, after all the campaigning he did for it.
Well, that still leaves him the possiblity ( however slim ) of becoming the first American Secretary General of the United Nations, something I hear he's as hot after now as he was after the Presidency. :)
Texpunditistan
01-06-2005, 15:03
The Nobel Peace Prize became absolutely meaningless when they decided to give it to Yassir Arafat.
Texpunditistan
01-06-2005, 15:05
Well, that still leaves him the possiblity ( however slim ) of becoming the first American Secretary General of the United Nations, something I hear he's as hot after now as he was after the Presidency. :)
Actually, I think it would be funny as hell if he got the Sec. Gen. post because that would kill any chance Hillary has of winning a presidential bid.

Can you say "conflict of interest"? :D
Myrmidonisia
01-06-2005, 15:10
Actually, I think it would be funny as hell if he got the Sec. Gen. post because that would kill any chance Hillary has of winning a presidential bid.

Can you say "conflict of interest"? :D
Wouldn't you like to hear the dinner table conversation about that?
Eutrusca
01-06-2005, 15:10
Actually, I think it would be funny as hell if he got the Sec. Gen. post because that would kill any chance Hillary has of winning a presidential bid.

Can you say "conflict of interest"? :D
Heh! I seriously doubt that Hillary has a chance at the US Presidency, regarless of circumstances. Even in the unlikely event she was elected, there is no provision in the US Constitution for a "conflict of interest," particularly not when the individual in question is the spouse of a sitting President. The entire thing could get rather complicated ( which seems almost to be a theme with the Clintons ). :)
Texpunditistan
01-06-2005, 15:11
Wouldn't you like to hear the dinner table conversation about that?
Oh, I would PAY to be the proverbial "fly on the wall" for that one. :D
Texpunditistan
01-06-2005, 15:14
there is no provision in the US Constitution for a "conflict of interest,"
There doesn't have to be. Just imagine the political spin that would come out from the Right...heck, the overseas criticism would be through the roof! Europe already thinks we have too much control in the UN. :cool:
Carnivorous Lickers
01-06-2005, 15:14
I always liked Rudy Giuliani. He knew what he was doing.

Nobel Peace Prize? I would think that was reserved for someone with a little more global impact, but he has great accomplishments as a prosecutor and as mayor of NYC.

And-as a previous poster pointed out-Arafat really diminishes the value of the prize.
Carnivorous Lickers
01-06-2005, 15:16
Heh! I seriously doubt that Hillary has a chance at the US Presidency, regarless of circumstances. Even in the unlikely event she was elected, there is no provision in the US Constitution for a "conflict of interest," particularly not when the individual in question is the spouse of a sitting President. The entire thing could get rather complicated ( which seems almost to be a theme with the Clintons ). :)


Conflicts of interest have never hindered the Clintons in the past.
Corneliu
01-06-2005, 15:20
Well, that still leaves him the possiblity ( however slim ) of becoming the first American Secretary General of the United Nations, something I hear he's as hot after now as he was after the Presidency. :)

Maybe not a bad idea. It'll keep Hilary from running for the Presidency.
Lord Baldwin
01-06-2005, 15:26
Rudy to my knowledge is not looking to become Secretary General, because he is planning on running for President in 2008 and is doing fairly well in the polls. Just hope he can beat out John McCain who is also running again in 2008. And for whichever one of you said Hillary doesn't stand a chance, you apparently haven't checked the latest poles as she is on top and the only major democratic competitor. She stands a very good chance at becomeing the next President, and if such a horrid event should occur God rest our souls.

Wouldn't it be odd to have a former President as the first man?
Corneliu
01-06-2005, 15:30
Rudy to my knowledge is not looking to become Secretary General, because he is planning on running for President in 2008 and is doing fairly well in the polls. Just hope he can beat out John McCain who is also running again in 2008. And for whichever one of you said Hillary doesn't stand a chance, you apparently haven't checked the latest poles as she is on top and the only major democratic competitor. She stands a very good chance at becomeing the next President, and if such a horrid event should occur God rest our souls.

Wouldn't it be odd to have a former President as the first man?

Actually, if you look at the poll numbers, they are a tad scewed. I honestly do think that she won't win the Presidency and if her husband (NOT Rudy) becomes Secretary General, Hillary won't win nor do I think she'll run.
Lord Baldwin
01-06-2005, 15:34
Well Hillary is leading the Democratic Polls by a huge margin and I seriously doubt Ex-President Clinton is running for anything considering he just got accepted into the UN to help disaster relief. I hope to God Hilary does not win but she will almost diffinately be the Democratic contender, and after eight years of a republican Presidency things aren't looking great.
Texpunditistan
01-06-2005, 15:35
Rudy to my knowledge is not looking to become Secretary General, because he is planning on running for President in 2008 and is doing fairly well in the polls. Just hope he can beat out John McCain who is also running again in 2008. And for whichever one of you said Hillary doesn't stand a chance, you apparently haven't checked the latest poles as she is on top and the only major democratic competitor. She stands a very good chance at becomeing the next President, and if such a horrid event should occur God rest our souls.

Wouldn't it be odd to have a former President as the first man?
First, you should pay closer attention to what you're reading. We were talking about BILL CLINTON trying to become Sec. Gen. of the UN, not Giuliani.

Second, McCain shot himself in the foot this week with the judicial comprimise. He'll never make it past the primaries.
Texpunditistan
01-06-2005, 15:38
Well Hillary is leading the Democratic Polls by a huge margin and I seriously doubt Ex-President Clinton is running for anything considering he just got accepted into the UN to help disaster relief. I hope to God Hilary does not win but she will almost diffinately be the Democratic contender, and after eight years of a republican Presidency things aren't looking great.
What's funny is the same people bitching about a "Bush dynasty" of presidents have no problem with wanting to put Hillary in the White House.

The word of the millennium is "hypocrisy". ;)
Cowhey
01-06-2005, 15:43
He should win. He did do a lot of stuff for New York.
Corneliu
01-06-2005, 15:45
What's funny is the same people bitching about a "Bush dynasty" of presidents have no problem with wanting to put Hillary in the White House.

The word of the millennium is "hypocrisy". ;)

And that word IS NOT in the liberals dictionary.
Haloman
01-06-2005, 15:59
Guliani deserves it. I hope he really does run in '08, especially if Hillary is the Dems nomination. He'd crush her. If the Republicans nominate another conservative, they're toast, as Hillary is a moderate, and the moajority of Americans are independent moderates. However, if the republicans nominate a moderate, they'd easily win. I'd especially want Guliani to run, as '08 will be my first presedential vote ;)
Corneliu
01-06-2005, 16:00
Guliani deserves it. I hope he really does run in '08, especially if Hillary is the Dems nomination. He'd crush her. If the Republicans nominate another conservative, they're toast, as Hillary is a moderate, and the moajority of Americans are independent moderates. However, if the republicans nominate a moderate, they'd easily win. I'd especially want Guliani to run, as '08 will be my first presedential vote ;)

Hillary ain't no moderate. How did you come to that conclusion?