Giuliani: Crime unrelated to race —— root out corruption

Former New York City Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, replied to former charges of race-profiling in his war against crime, as he spoke to reporters on his arrival yesterday at Piarco Airport in his private jet ahead of today’s anti-crime seminar hosted by CLICO at the Hilton Trinidad.

He said: “Crime has nothing to do with race, but with how you apply the law. Race and crime have nothing to do with each other. Crime is a human characteristic.” Giuliani said that based on his experience in dealing with all kinds of criminals and organised crime in New York, including the Mafia, law enforcement agencies had to “try to protect the community as best as possible”. He added that to solve crime, one had to be racially-neutral, noting: “If you search for the wrong people, crime will go up dramatically.”  Giuliani said he will be sharing his experiences in crime reduction, techniques of accountability, and flexible approaches. Remarking that crimes in New York and Trinidad and Tobago were very similiar, he recalled that at one time people had been afraid to visit his city.

His visit to Trinidad and Tobago to share his expertise, he said, was because he knew crime was of great concern locally. Also at the media conference, former New York City Chief of Police, Bernard Kerik, revealed that he had spent yesterday meeting local business people, with kidnapping being a major topic of discussion. Kerik said he and local officers would be sharing technology, proactive measures and intelligence information. Kerik also called for corruption to be rooted out, a sentiment also expressed by Giuliani.