During Wiegert’s first show, most of the calls were about cops and crime. Typical was one caller’s riff: “You can’t even walk in and buy something in a fast-food place without the fear that someone might come in and rob it and shoot the owner and maybe shoot you for what you got. I mean it’s just fear, fear in the 10th Ward. Anything it takes to do it, like the Giuliani deal, I’m all for it.”
Wiegert thanked the caller and responded: “I like that style that [Mayor Rudy] Giuliani presented in New York. Basically, the criminals and gangs were taking over the city. They went into a total enforcement-type mode where they wanted to suppress even the minor-type activity.” But then, Wiegert admitted, problems arose when an unarmed man, Amadou Diallo, was shot 41 times and killed by four New York policemen, who were later cleared. “[Diallo] did unusual actions,” Wiegert said on his show. “I mean, he was an immigrant and didn’t understand the actions of this country, or what is suspicious and what isn’t suspicious, and he ended up being shot.”
You know how New York City governs the Police Department? The Mayor directly appoints the Commissioner who is a civilian appointee who oversees the department. It was changed to limit interference from a 4-6 member commission that jointly ran the NYPD prior to 1901.
But remember. Black people are scary.