Weekly Standard editor William Kristol has been a fixture on Fox News Sunday for the past decade or so, but apparently he’s out of that contract and is free to appear on other network chat shows.
Now in a rational media world we wouldn’t hear much from him, unless it was to apologize for all of his bogus Iraq War claims and predictions.
But we live with a corporate media system that is very forgiving of certain kinds of pundits. Kristol happens to be that kind of pundit, so ABC‘s This Week welcomed him back on August 18, with host George Stephanopoulos saying it’d been 14 years since his last appearance: “It’s been a long time since you have been on the roundtable. Welcome back.”
Kristol soon enough weighed in on the the politics of New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk program, which had just been declared unconstitutional and amounted to, in the words of federal Judge Shira Scheindlin, a “policy of indirect racial profiling.”
Unsurprisingly, Kristol isn’t happy with this. He claimed:
In 1990, there were 2,200 murders in New York. Last year there were 414. We’re not talking about a trivial accomplishment. The Giuliani/Bloomberg accomplishment of cutting crime—radically cutting crime—way beyond what anyone thought was possible in New York—has made possible the economic revitalization of New York and an awful lot of other good things, as well as saving a lot of lives. And it’s typical of liberal judges, if I might say, and liberal policy makers, that they go after one of the most successful policies actually in place in a real city in tough circumstances.
The first problem with stop-and-frisk is that it is unconstitutional; whether a police tactic that violates fundamental rights might “work” is irrelevant; plenty of outrageous violations of civil rights could theoretically lower crime rates.
But Kristol’s argument is flimsy anyway. He starts by citing a New York murder rate from 1990—a high that has nothing to do with stop-and-frisk, which was not a significant part of NYPD policy until around 2003. At that point, the murder rate had already dropped significantly, as this chart from the BBC shows pretty clearly.
As Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union pointed out (Daily News, 5/25/12):
The 11 percent drop in murders from the start of the Bloomberg administration in 2002 to 2011 is good news, but it pales in comparison to other large cities that do not rely on aggressive street stops. According to the FBI, murder rates plummeted in some of those cities far more than in New York: 50 percent in Los Angeles, 43 percent in Washington D.C. and 35 percent in Chicago.
But Bill Kristol will go on TV and say that, and outlets like ABC will gladly welcome him back.
Interesting how we must rely on non-US news outlets like BBC to get an accurate picture of what is going on in the US.
Losing civil liberties would make us safer from terrorists and street crime but it would make us less safe from our own government. Tyranny killed hundreds of millions while terrorism killed thousands.
Kristol understands what every children’s storybook author knows
Never let the facts get in the way of a good fairy tale.
Numbers don’t lie but liars, like Mr. Kristol, use numbers.
One doesn’t need a Ph.D to understand why Kristol and FoxNews still share the same bed. Both are Zionconservatives (Neocon) mouthpieces.
On September 10, 2002 – Philip Zelikow, the Zionist Jew Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, told a crowd at the University of Virginia: “Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I’ll tell you what I think the real threat and actually has been since 1990 – It’s the threat against Israel“.
http://rehmat1.com/2013/05/29/iraq-after-10-years/
William Kristol has long been the leading spokesperson for the anonymous ultra-rich. Nice work of you can get it, but his positions are nothing short of treason.
The chances of a person seeing another point of view as valid, is inversely proportional to amount their paycheck depends on them not seeing that point of view as valid.
Can’t recall who first said it, but this says it all….
BWWAAAHAHAHAAA HA HA HA …
Pathological liar and honorary “New American century” Arrow of Light webelo scout, Bill aka “bunker buster” Kristol. is just a wee bit paranoid im sure.. He wants to make sure none of the little inferior people around him has a gun. If he could get a phalanx of cops to walk in front of and behind him frisking everyone they see, he would no doubt feel much safer.(Hey bill the cops in NY are for sale, I’m sure you have the money) Its a glimpse into the minds of our morally inverted idiot oligarchs. They know they are criminals , thieves and murderers and they DO feel guilty about it. The difference between the guilt they feel and what a normal person would feel is that it only motivates them to even more self centered outrages and crimes, all in the service of protecting, and further enriching, their precious, precious selves..
And What IS the comparable “fricking” (soft c) NYPD POLICE CRIME RATE INCREASE
Can we expect any less from a co author of The Project for A New American Century? This guy would find praise for the Nazi’s throwing Ukrainian babies into fires during Barbarossa.
BULLSHIT! I spend a lot of time in New York.Read how many illegal guns have been confiscated in stop and frisk situations.Ask any cop on the New York city street if removing those tens of thousands of guns (and those carrying them) has had an effect on crime.Profiling???Gimme a break.If you fall into the water and sharks are circling and you jump out….is it because you profiled the shark?In New york 98% of violent crime is committed by young black men.So if a cop sees three young black man- in hoodies, and pants around their butts ,in what they consider a suspicious situation,,,and they pat them down.They are following the crime stats and making an educated decision based on those stats.Cry me a frigging river.Should they waste time frisking the three old ladies pushing their grandchildren in a stroller to show they are politically correct for you lot.So stupid.Al Gore has been stopped and frisked 4 times by the NSA.Idiots.In New york police stop a lot of young thugs.More often than not they recover guns…drugs or whatever.It has made NY immeasurably safer.Best thing they ever did.If they find nothing, the guys go on their way.Boo hoo hoo.Hell they just patted me down in the airport.I was patted down in a concert I went (Train).Got my stuff gone through at a baseball game today.Went to traffic court through metal detectors last week….Im traumatized please help me.Look Im a constitutionalist.I think their are some salient points that question the constitutionality of searching people the police suspect of nefarious behavior.But it is not cut and dry.Do you know that everyone who meets the president is scrutinized?Profiled as it were by his secret service?Again boo hoo hoo.I believe the “paddle” coming on line will help police.Simple device.Wave it over a person and it pops on firearms concealed.That is probable cause.End of this stupid debate.Search dogs give the same probable cause.I love these civil liberty cases that help the criminals only.You morons would have the NSA or the Police stop and frisk six nuns and an Amish cake sales men as 7 Arab men slip by mumbling allahu akbar .Waving Koran’s ,eyes darting too and fro ,as they stuff box cutters up their sleeves.Just to make a point.We all profile.everyday in every way.When your daughter comes home with some guy with tattoos and piercings over most of his body and a shirt that says KKK rules….you ARE PROFILING!As always the road to hell is paved with liberal good intentions.This case will be revisited.mark my words.
I think I just fell asleep trying to write a comment, and it disappeared.
so TIRESOME thinking about commenting about bill kristol (decades and decades later and forever rightwing con-on-us.. or to comment on any of the old and constant gang…of “ster” policy explainers. which is a main point. about who are gangsters and NOT being frisked.. NO WAY.. AND NOT BEING STOPPED EITHER… (wally street, etc )
NO, just oh so much crime by those regular folk walking down the street, going home from school, hanging at the corner … but, BUT, to me,.. it’s also a crime to maul people (sexual abuse? psychological torture?) ..those types of … NAZI? stop and dominate.. crimes.
and the police threaten all those thousands, too.
all the rest of the policestate (like Israel, etc) tactics increasingly (OMG!) (i’m serious,… OMG… NOW IT’S .. American.
!it’s sick to me, and to most people WHO SEE IT, and it’s a CRIME itself, guys, according to… lo and behold, an American court…THE JUDGE!
HEY, I say, let’s start stopping and frisking for TRUTH.
LET’S START BY … remembering we want liberty INSTEAD OF A POLICE STATE , WE WANT justice FOR ALL.
STOP FRISKING THE WHOLE DAMN COUNTRY AND WORLD, turning the USA and our lives into terror-THREATS AND VIOLENCE everyday. it’s plain. we’re a damn ugly stupid….POLICESTATE… bill.
I love the picture of mr. kristol, who actually looks pretty unhappy… ? and I loved those on last week’s articles and others before and forgot to say.
Michael e might want to move to … Israel? or … (sigh) I just can’t and don’t buy his take. does anyone else here APPRECIATE our new police state and the dangerous results of all-out disgusting perpetual wars? like bill kristol does?…. and maybe George? steponallofus doing the msm “news”?
why would anyone? want this? and we know.
$$$$$ is good.
J golden I understand your take(I think)….But lets be clear.New York has a massive massive young black male crime problem.98% of all violent crime in NYC come from that demographic.Want to remove illegal guns and their owners from the streets?How you gonna do it?I have shown you where the great majority of the guns and the criminals are.For the sake of political correctness, are you gonna play deaf ,dumb,and blind?Rather these thugs rape ,kill,rob,and threaten everyone .Destroying society and the safety of an entire city….yes that is better than possibly….possibly I say ruffling the feathers of innocent people who are inconvenienced?Want to fix this.Let the black community turn this around.Let them create a time where young black men are creating 1% of the violent crime.Believe me…….there will be no need for stop and frisk.
Michael e apparently did not read the article, and he thinks the policestate is worth it even if some people are “inconvenienced and get their feathers ruffled.” it’s worth it -“to stop the violent crime all caused by young blacks”
wow.
Michael should get stopped once by three or four heavily and increasingly armed with various weapons girls and boys in blue, get thrown up against or down to on… and felt by their hands and bodies up and down, insulted in public on the street, and assaulted like this,
seriously, THEN, tell us how his feathers feel. THEN he can and WOULD wonder how many times this has to happen to Michael e in order that all the other perfect people of the city can feel better and safe. AND IT WOULD BE WORTH IT FOR US, THE GOOD PEOPLE!
I was just reading about Lebanon where.. well.. there’s the other type of inconvenience and feather ruffling, where the GLOBAL aspect of homelandsecurity policing is, yes, coincidently, simultaneously at work: (both kinds and places of concern are LOVED by bill kristol and his neoconnista war… planners, cheerleaders, and developers:
“the blast targeted ordinary people going about their business, and looks just like the massacres committed by Israeli warplanes during the war in july 2006…. 25 people were killed and 335 injured, all innocent civilians…bear[ing] the mark of the covenant between Israel, the united states… and the criminal gang led by Bandar bin sultan..”
so, IT APPEARS TO ME, the same people and “convenant” have helped build and train the stop-and-frisk America! you know, right? that newyork city and other American police and firemen go to Israel! to be trained IN HOMELAND SECURITY … what?! our police need training by Israelis……? why would that be?
furthermore, there’s also the “violence and ruin” of cities WHICH IS WORSE SINCE ALL THIS HOMELAND SECURITY STUFF STARTED… ruining by the economy! the big wall st banks, which are ALSO connected to the wars abroad as well as to the economic violence and destruction of many many municipalities of the u.s, and
to the federal (debt to the big banks )budget of this country.
the police state, militarized community police, and daily repression of civil liberties for the general public DO NOT prevent or stop
the biggest crimes against us AND YOUNG BLACKS–which are economic and global political and war-connected. instead, stop and frisk techniques are affiliated GLOBALLYwith corruption and military dictatorships–
Michael b. and Michael e. both approve– that nyc and the whole u.s.
….. can be MUST BE inconvenienced so they feel happier when they’re there in THEIR city.
Michael, most financial crime is commited by white people. Should you have to provide your financial information to regulators to make sure that you are not doing anything illegal?
J Golden……You are blaming the wrong people.You are blaming police for trying to come up with ways to get these guns,and those most likely to use them-off the streets..You are not blaming the people who are to blame…..the criminals.Someone has to say it.THe left has so cowed the discourse with yells of racism that we no longer can have an intelligent discussion.When I was in Northern Ireland I was stopped on two occasions by Brits who were not so nice.Not my fault.Not the Brits fault.It was solely the fault of those who created the situation where people were being killed.I understood that.You understand this.if tomorrow young black men stop the killing and the crime in NYC,on a dime…this whole problem will vanish.And as far as do authorities go after more whites than blacks concerning white collar crime?Absolutely.As a famous bank robber said when asked why he robs banks …..”I go where the money is.”Today we go where the crime is.And for those on the left who are trying to use the constitution as a lever to their arguments….. save it .You on the left are no longer privy to using that sacred document to leverage your arguments.Leave that argument for the adults.
no, Michael e, I think you’re the one blaming the wrong people, but obviously you have a different RIGHTwing way of thinking which I see as a phony and lame justification and creepy strong support for the new american POLICESTATE.
you avoid seeing an ugly larger class war or agenda, and you think black kids who might have guns are a good reason for police ABUSE of people who have not committed any crime.
SO, consider this quote I’ve just seen another place today said by one Thomas Fuller, who lived 1608-1661 :
“Security is the mother of danger and the grandmother of destruction.”
I agree with that. it seems correct, and I can say this- the police states
here, there, and everywhere around the world now look and feel very ugly and dangerous to me, and they definitely destroy lives for their victims especially.
I think you should stop cheering for a crappy police state and help find NONviolent ways to end the other violence you use to excuse the violence of the state- a massive and ubiquitous threat far worse than most any other, IMO.
stop and frisk is violent and abusive, and I bet the cops in Ireland were sweet in comparison. tell us how they treated you exactly . did they have big guns and multiple weapons all over them? did they put their hands all over you? did they surround and threaten you?
…I kind of doubt it.. but ? who knows? maybe you loved it.
“their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today-my own government.”
– martin luther king, jr., speech at riverside church in nyc, mar 4 1967
J Golden…In Ireland two soldiers came up and asked me for papers.It was day light.The carried military weapons.I complied.and that was that.The second time i said goodnight to two ladies and my friend and I started down a dark street(I did not know this but it was a bad area).Three soldiers told us to stand next to a wall,and one frisked us.After seeing our passports one told us to “MOOF yer in a unsafe area”We did and I was no worse for the wear….though thankful they were patrolling ,as it WAS a dicey area.Im quite sure those being stopped and frisked are annoyed no end.They should be annoyed…… at the punks that are causing 98% of ALL violent crimes in New york .And those crimes are being committed by young black men.I sure as hell would be if I was an innocent black man on my way to school in a dicy area.But i also might feel a bit safer.See I had nothing on me.But the three guys next to me did and they are going away.My life might of just been saved.See inconvenience and embarrassment is a far cry from a bullet in the liver.We need to look at a few things.One….is crime with guns and drugs rampant?Two……Is stop and frisk working?Three how do we continue what is working and bring it under all guide lines of our constitution,bill of rights,and current laws.This is what you should be using your time and energy trying to work through.Not crowing that the criminals have really beaten honest people by working the edges of our own freedoms.Freedoms they use to rob us of the ultimate freedom.LIFE!!!!!!! No one is condoning a police state.In Philadelphia cops will sweep an area.All the young bucks walk on through.Police move in and find guns in every flower pot and bush.Sometimes 50% of these kids are armed.And strangely ……it is the cops who are looked at as the thugs.at some point you have to get your head out of your ass
Start with stop and frisk, and what is next? Maybe curfew? Add some check points, barbed wire and search lights. Maybe we should add random searches of homes and interrogations. So now you are living in jail but that is a small price to pay to keep you safe from the thugs.
Random searches are more than just an inconvenience. They are humiliating and emasculating. Many cops are sadists that use these searches to bully and humiliate. Many other cops will lie and plant evidence and there is nothing you can do about it.
The idea behind democracy is that people are sovereign and have rights. You don’t treat people like cattle to improve crime statistics.
Michael, your experience in Northern Ireland is telling. English oppressed humiliated and worked to change ethnic make up of the land. Those who frisked you did it not just to protect you but to implement unjust policies of oppressive government.
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