Giuliani, Bratton Slam ‘Black Lives Matter’ as Anti-Cop

NEW YORK (AP/Hamodia) —
FILE - Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
FILE – Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani stepped up his sharp criticism of Black Lives Matter on Monday, saying he saved “a lot more black lives” during his time in office than the movement.

The Republican made the comments on Fox News, where he alluded to his tough-on-crime policies while running New York, which led to a significant drop in the murder rate.

“I believe I saved a lot more black lives than Black Lives Matter. I don’t see what Black Lives Matter is doing for blacks other than isolating them,” he said. “All it cares about is the police shooting of blacks. It doesn’t care about the 90 percent of blacks that are killed by other blacks.”

Giuliani also repeated an assertion that he first made Sunday on CBS that the term “black lives matter” is racist.

“It’s inherently racist because, number one, it divides us. All lives matter,” he said Monday.

Giuliani charged that the reason there is a “target on police officers backs” is “because of groups like Black Lives Matter that make it seem like all police are against blacks. They’re not. They’re the ones saving black lives.”

Police Commissioner William Bratton also told CBS on Sunday said Black Lives Matter “is primarily focused on police and their efforts to portray police and the police profession in a very negative way, which is unfortunate.”

Mayor de Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray, in a joint interview on CNN, disagreed, calling the group formed in 2014 a “force for good” that has changed the “national discussion.”

“We have a different perspective [than Bratton],” McCray said. “Black Lives Matter is a force for good. It’s about peaceful protests. It’s about shining a light on the problems that we have in race relations across this country. We’ve had a history of it. And it has not gone away, but we haven’t had enough positive action taken on making change. And I am very encouraged by the Black Lives Matter movement.”

The mayor walked a finer line, backing his top cop while not alienating African-Americans.

“I appreciate the fact that [Bratton] is saying that we have vast majority of police officers doing their job. We have some who don’t belong in the profession like every profession,” de Blasio said. “I think what the protesters are doing is really about the few who don’t belong.”

De Blasio noted that the group held a moment of silence this week for the five officers killed in Dallas.

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