Rudolph Giuliani’s title as mayor or New York had extended to mayor of America due to his admirable command during 9/11. While this instance is one in which he can be seen to be a positive force in New York City, there are other instances in which is leadership counters the core values of the city. The decisions he made in office suggest that he did not support the small businesses and small minority groups the resided in New York.
Giuliani was successful in reducing crime in the city. Seen as a hero, he implemented the “Broken Windows” theory and the Zero Tolerance Campaign. He increased the size of the police force as well as forming the Street Crime Unit of Undercover Cops and the Compstat Program. He believed that eliminating public disturbances would help to reduce crime. However, he had a very broad definition of what classified as one. Because of this, a large number of crimes that were being brought to court were very minor offenses.
The people accused of these petty crimes were subject to strip searches and were held in jail even before they were realized to be innocent. This time of suspicion and doubt left New Yorkers feeling that their freedoms were under attack. Moreover, the Street Crime Unit of Undercover Cops and the Compstat Program were guilty of racial profiling which angered minority New Yorkers. Although Giuliani claimed to want to solve the issues between the minorities and the police as he ran for a second term, but did not make any measurable progress on this conflict.
The people of New York were not pleased with the mayor of America. Activists like Al Sharpton held public protests and rallies to raise awareness and provoke some sort of social change to serve justice to those that suffered undeservingly by the police. Giuliani was dumb to the feelings of the people. Moreover, he reassured them that the innocence of the minority groups accused of crimes were released after their passing. This nonchalant attitude towards the injustice left him to be an unpopular mayor.
Not only did he not address the conflict between cops and minorities, but he also opposed labor unions and welfare programs that this group of people largely relied on. He believed that people had to work and earn their benefits, however this contradicted the activist leadership and values that were native to the city of New York. Although Giuliani led the city admirably during the events of the 9/11 tragedy and had good intentions for New York, his public policies and suppression of labor unions, welfare causes, and small businesses made him foreign to the true spirit of the city.
With the 1965 immigration reform, people from all over the globe came to New York City. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Jews migrated to New York and settled in Brighton Beach, where they worked hard to reform their lives. Dominican and Puerto Rican immigrants established themselves in Washington Heights on the Upper West Side and Corona, Queens. The Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and West Indians that arrived in New York were particularly conflicted between their native cultures. They often went back to their home country to visit and continued to practice their cultures in New York. Chinese immigrants settled in Chinatown in Manhattan. This group was outcasted for a period of time where they were not allowed to move up the social ladder. They were known as the Downtown Chinese. After the immigration quota was raised, Chinese immigrants chose to settle uptown distinguished themselves from their inferior Downtown counterpart. They settled in Sunset Park, Brooklyn as well as Flushing, Queens. Chinese soon became involved in politics and society by electing a Chinese councilman John Liu.
