MLK 2011: Sharpton Updates the Struggle, Bloomberg Gets Booed - WNYC

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In his annual tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, the Rev. Al Sharpton and his parade of guests urged the crowd to fight the modern battle against inequality. And in at least once instance, that meant, for some, booing the person at the podium.

"We must deal with the issues of today," said Sharpton, who flew into the event after spending the morning in Washington DC. He equated the need to update the civil rights struggle today with the 1965 television sitcom F-Troop, which, according to Sharpton drew its humor from the fact that the post-Civil War soldiers "were fighting a war that had already been fought."

"The problem with many of us today is we want to fight the civil rights battle of 50 years ago," said Sharpton. "And not deal with the civil rights battle of today."


As the crowd applauded and occasionally yelled out encouragement, Sharpton said, "We won the battle of segregation. We can sleep in any hotel, we can buy coffee anywhere. The new problem is we can't afford it."

He went on to say, "We won the battle against mob violence in the south. Now our children are acting like mobs in the north." After pausing for some applause, he added, "We won the battle of being able to go to any school. We just don't get equal education and equal results."

After praising Dr. King's achievements in the 1960s, Sharpton told the crowd, "We've got to deal with gun control. We've got to deal with taking this thug, gangster mentality out of our community."

The crowd was boisterous, and welcoming of the elected officials who made their way to the stage during the nearly 6-hour event, including Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Representatives Anthony Weiner, Jerry Nadler and Charlie Rangle, former Mayor Dinkins, union leader Mike Fishman of 32BJ, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, and Community Board 1 President Julie Menin. Governor Cuomo was unable to attend because he was recuperating from a recent dental procedure. Sharpton said the governor will visit the group at another date.

Mayor Bloomberg was also there, and Sharpton reminded the audience, he's attended the event every year he's been in office. As Sharpton introduced the mayor, he was greeted with a round of applause that was quickly joined by booing, mostly from the rear of the room. Mr. Bloomberg, who spoke rather than yelled into the microphone, was initially drowned out by the reception.

Bloomberg's popularity has plummeted sharply after the city's botched snow removal efforts during the post-Christmas blizzard that left many buses, trains and even ambulances stuck for hours. But nobody needed to remind the crowd of that. There were other, more pressing matters.

By the time Bloomberg was introduced, a few speakers had, perhaps, stoked the crowd's ire at the administration.

City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez of Upper Manhattan had blamed the current city administration for not building enough affordable housing, and for the low graduation rates at community colleges.

"Why did Mayor Bloomberg say that affordable housing was his priority," Rodriguez asked, citing the mayor's promise to renovate 100,000 units plus build an additional 60,000.

"In my district, in Washington Heights, only one big building has been built in the mayor's administration," said Rodgriguez. (The building, he said, was located at 204 Street.) "Only one building has been built. And that is a reality citywide," he said.

Then, Rodriquez, chairman of the council's Higher Education Committee, blasted the mayor on graduation rates.

"Drop out at community colleges, where about 90 percent of the students are black and Latino, only 28 percent graduated after six years," said Rodriguez, to the gasps and groans of the audience. Rodriguez reminded the crowd that Bloomberg had called community colleges one of his "priorities," and said, "the money's not there."

Rodriguez ended his speech predicting the city would not invest the same amount of money in poorer communities as they do in wealthier ones. He then added, "Yes, we have two New Yorks. The New York of the rich and the New York of the poor," echoing a slogan used by Fernando Ferrer, the Democrat who ran against Bloomberg in 2005 (and who enjoyed a visibility-stimulating endorsement from Rev. Sharpton).

More crowd-riling came from Rev. David Hampton of Bethany Baptist Church in Brooklyn, the same place where Sharpton started out years ago. Hampton spoke about the economic disparity between African Americans, who endured slavery and discrimination at work, to whites, who facing no such obstacles, were able to hand down their accumulated finances generation after generation.

"There's a difference between rich, and wealthy," said Hampton. "Oprah is rich. John D. Rockefeller is wealthy."

Then, Hampton invoked Bloomberg's new (and controversially approved) schools chancellor, Cathie Black. He reminded the crowd that she recently said school overcrowding could be solved by using "birth control." (The comment was made in jest and she has since apologized.)

The crowd grumbled at Hampton's telling of the incident, and one woman in the crowd could be heard saying "stupid!" in response. Then, Hampton said, "How about birth control for those who sit in positions of privilege?" The crowd applauded.

For his part, Sharpton's introduction of Bloomberg was earnest.

After noting they differ on some issues, he told the crowd, "We have unapologetically agreed and fought [together] on the things we do agree."

"He has been criticized for working with me. I have been criticized for working for him," said Sharpton, rattling off their efforts on education, juvenile justice and gun control. He noted that Bloomberg showed up at the event each year, "whether we were fighting or not and showed his respect for the community that Dr. King would fight for and fight from."

As he spoke, Bloomberg did manage to draw a quick laugh from the crowd, saying in a movie of their lives, the actor who would depict Sharpton would be Denzel Washington. "And the obvious choice to play me would be Brad PItt," said the mayor, who added a self-deprecating roll of the eyes.

The mayor praised King's resilience in the face of threats and violence, noting that King was treated in Harlem hospital for a stab wound. Later, he drew applause for saying he would "step up" efforts to crack down on gun violence, which, he said, was disproportionately affecting young African American males.

Brief applause came when the mayor spoke about "stopping the practice of sending hundreds of our youngsters from our city every year to state-run juvenile facilities upstate." Youthful offenders incarcerated there are "cut off for months, even years from their families, their schools and churches, which could be positive influences on them."

But when the mayor tried highlighting his accomplishments with city schools, the crowd's ire returned.

"I know everybody complains. Everybody says 'the test is easier,' this that and the other thing. Make no mistake about it," said Bloomberg. "President Obama and his secretary, Arne Duncan, think New York City is the national model for what you do with the school system."

Immediately, the crowd pushed back.

"No, they don't" said one woman in the crowd. Others hissed. Others hissed and murmurs grew louder and Bloomberg promised to make further progress on education.

"Thank you and God bless," Bloombeg concluded. The response was, again, a mixture of applauds and boos.

Mike Bloomberg for President? From king of NY to US? Jail him!!!! - Suzannah B. Troy

Here's another great video from my friend Suzannah B. Troy...

Suzannahartist YouTubeland.



Do you think Mike the control freak pays people to be cyber thugs for him? If he did that it would be like breaking campaign laws -- it carries jail time if the NYPD, Cy Vance and FEDs enforce the law!

Reclusive, 104-year-old Heiress Huguette Clark Lavished "Millions" on Her Lawyer by Dan Mangan - NYPOST.com

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EXPLOSIVE: Estate lawyer Wallace Bock allegedly got a $1.5 million check from reclusive Huguette Clark to build a "bomb shelter."

A 104-year-old heiress lavished "millions" of dollars in gifts on the family of her lawyer, who is now under investigation for his handling of her finances as she lives out her days in a Manhattan hospital, an ex-employee told The Post.

Huguette Clark once bought at auction a dol lhouse worth well more than $10,000 for lawyer Wallace Bock's grand daughter, and gave him a check for about $1.5 mil lion to build a "bomb shelter" for a settlement in Israel where his daughter and her family live, two people said yesterday.

Bock's co-workers were so amused by his reliance on the copper heiress that they once gave the estate lawyer a purported signed copy of her last will and testament -- which named him as a big beneficiary -- at the firm's holiday party, said Bock's former paralegal, Cynthia Garcia.

"It was a joke," said Garcia.

Bock, after initially being stunned because he thought it was the real deal, then realized the document was phony, Garcia said. "But he kept it," she added.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is aggressively investigating Bock, 78, and Clark's accountant, Irving Kamsler, 63, for allegedly mismanaging Clark's $500 million fortune. Kamsler is on probation for attempting to send porn via the Internet to an undercover detective posing as an underage girl.

"What they're doing to her is horrible," Garcia said, referring to Clark and her millions.

Garcia said Bock called her Thursday night -- after years of no contact -- and asked her not to discuss with anyone his dealings with Clark. He also allegedly asked if she had gone on "vacation recently."

"He sounded patronizing . . . and so desperate to placate me," Garcia said.

Hours later, the DA's Office called Garcia and left a message asking to speak with her, she said.

Bock's spokesman, Michael McKeon, said, "After more than 50 years as an attorney, Wally Bock has an excellent reputation and an unblemished record. Any inquiry will confirm that all matters have been handled appropriately and consistent with Ms. Clark's wishes."

"We believe Ms. Garcia is confused about the facts," McKeon said.

Kamsler refuses to comment.

Clark, whose US senator-father was America's second richest man in the early 1900s, has spent more than 20 years living in New York City hospitals, and is currently at Beth Israel Medical Center.

Meanwhile, her 42-room Fifth Avenue apartment is unoccupied, and her lavish mansions in California and New Canaan, Conn., have been vacant for more than 50 years, costing her millions of dollars in maintenance and taxes.

Garcia said Bock has several daughters and grandchildren living in Israel, and that after 9/11 he had Garcia write to Clark asking for $1.5 million to "build a bomb shelter" in Israel.

"He was not asking other people" for money, Garcia said. "In less than an hour," they received a check in that amount from Clark, Garcia said.

A source close to Bock confirmed that Clark, for the purposes of building a security system to protect against a terror attack, had made the substantial donation to the West Bank settlement where Bock's daughter and grandchildren live.

The donation was initially held in escrow by a lawyer there before the shelter was built, the source said.

With Rebecca Rosenberg, Laura Italiano, Sabrina Ford and Jeane MacIntosh

Bloomberg's Million-Dollar Ripoff by Tom Robbins - villagevoice.com

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The Mayor's 'Crime'

Michael Bloomberg never once complained about the million-plus dollars that District Attorney Cy Vance says was plucked from the mayor's pocket during last year's election. He gets outright nasty when asked about it: "I'm sorry that my English isn't good enough for you," barked the mayor when reporters pressed him last week about how this crime occurred.

Previously, the only robbery victims known to clam up and get all defensive like this were drug dealers and mobsters, who understandably don't gripe about the loss of ill-gotten gains. We now add to this category mega-millionaire politicians whose campaigns are cloaked in secrecy and who would rather take a seven-figure hit than suffer the spotlight of a criminal inquiry.

Right now, the man accused of conning the mayor out of $1.1 million is also keeping mum. The only public comment so far from John Haggerty Jr., a second-generation Republican political power, was at his arraignment on grand larceny charges. "Not guilty," he said.

If he could safely do so, Haggerty would have a great many interesting things to say. It may be true, as Vance's indictment alleges, that he misled Bloomberg's campaign into believing that he would field an army of poll watchers. It may also be true that his goal in this scheme, as also alleged, was to get the money he needed to buy out his siblings' interest in the graceful brick home in Forest Hills that belonged to their late father, Jack Haggerty, the former leader of the Queens Republican party.

But it's also true that, right up to that fateful election day, John Haggerty Jr. had worked his heart out for the Bloomberg cause with no apparent payment by the most generous political candidate in municipal history. Other top officials of Team Bloomberg scored the biggest paydays of their lives. Haggerty worked for free—at least as far as filings show. Yet his tasks were just as crucial, if not more so. He played the leading role in persuading five cranky Republican county leaders to get over their hurt feelings and give Bloomberg their nomination, even though the mayor had jilted them two years earlier by quitting their party. Take a look at those photos of Bloomberg's pre-nomination meetings in which he pleaded with GOP officials to let bygones be bygones. There's John Haggerty, quietly at his side.

Without the GOP nod, Bloomberg would've been forced to slog it out as a third-party candidate against an African-American Democrat on his left and a Republican spoiler on his right. We know how that would have turned out: Even with the GOP in line, Bloomberg managed only a 4 percent win, despite spending more than $108 million. We'd be talking today about Mayor William C. Thompson. That seems like reason enough to want to throw Haggerty a million bucks worth of thank-yous.

"John was responsible for the mayor's election," says Tom Ognibene, the former Queens Republican Councilmember. "Without the Republican line, he was not getting re-elected."

Ognibene is now running for lieutenant governor with millionaire Carl Paladino, for whom Haggerty is handling a Republican petition drive. But the men were once antagonists. Back in 2005, Ognibene angrily denounced Bloomberg's Republican bona fides, and tried to mount a primary challenge against the mayor. Haggerty was one of those who helped Bloomberg knock him off the ballot. "He was in the Board of Elections, day in and day out, scrutinizing my filings," says Ognibene.

Again, there were no disclosed payments from Bloomberg's campaign to Haggerty. But Ognibene says he was told at the time by Robert Muir, one of Bloomberg's election lawyers, that he was paying Haggerty out of his own contract with the campaign.

Muir died in 2006, but this makes a lot of sense. For one thing, as the Daily News' Adam Lisberg has noted, Muir cashed in big from Bloomberg's 2005 re-election effort, taking in a total of $1.9 million for petition work and voter canvassing. Plus, Haggerty and Muir went way back together: Haggerty's first job out of college was working as a paralegal for Muir's Brooklyn law firm. The two worked side by side in the campaign of Ron Lauder, the millionaire who set the pre-Bloomberg record for mayoral campaign spending when he ran in 1989. In the 2005 campaign, Bloomberg was so appreciative of Muir's efforts that he kept paying his widow for several months after he died.

Ognibene says that after he filed suit to remain on the ballot, Muir encouraged him. "Bob said, 'You are doing me a favor. Keep going into federal court.' He said, 'I'm taking care of Haggerty.' He was candid about it."

That past history persuades Ognibene that the reason Bloomberg never cried thief last year is because there was no harm and no foul. "John got this money funneled to him," he says. "That's why there was no complaint filed. He never took a penny. He could've been making hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was John's bonus."

Then there's Bloomberg's own curious performance in all this. Vance says that he's had complete cooperation from the mayor and his campaign, and that neither are targets. For that, Bloomberg can thank the state's election laws, which are murkier than a Louisiana oil slick.

For one thing, there's the fact that when the mayor launched his re-election committee, he had to sign a sworn candidate's form agreeing to do all his campaign spending via his designated committee, Bloomberg for Mayor 2009. And he did. Except where it suited him not to. When it came time to wire $1.2 million to the Independence Party so it could hire Haggerty to handle Bloomberg's election-day poll-watching chores, the mayor dipped into his personal account. Exactly why he did this remains a mystery. It was one of the questions that sent the mayor into his royal snit last week with reporters.

The most obvious explanation is secrecy. If the mayor did it through his campaign, the big-bucks contract would have been an instant news story since it would've been publicly disclosed just before voters hit the polls. It's easy to envision the headline, something along the lines of "Mayor Mike's Million Dollar Thank-You for Indy Party Endorsement."

By routing it through his own checking account, the mayor guaranteed that it would stay secret until mid-January, the party's next required public filing. That much of the scheme Haggerty was clearly involved in. In a note to Bloomberg's campaign staff cited in Vance's legal papers, Haggerty wrote that the payment for the operation should be funded with "a Housekeeping contribution that will not be reported until January 15, 2010."

Not that Mayor Mike needed help figuring that out. He did the exact same thing the year before, when he ran another million-plus dollars through his compliant friends at the Independence Party so that they could pay a secret Bloomberg campaign squad to work for Republican state senatorial candidates. Those payments didn't become public until weeks later. By then, only the Voice thought they were a big deal.

Right now, it's the Independence Party that's on the hot seat. Last week, the D.A. took the rare step of putting the party's lawyer in front of a grand jury to ask where the records are from this debacle. Party officials said they've already given what little they have. If so, it puts the spotlight back on City Hall. That's one more thing the billionaire media mogul who still nurtures White House dreams would rather not talk about.

Bloomberg Scolds Reporters Again by David Chen - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

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Mayor Bloomberg is really one of the most arrogant men on the face of this earth...

On some days, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg can be quite charming and courteous with the press, congratulating reporters who have gotten married or given birth.

Monday was not one of those days.

When asked his reaction to the indictment of John F. Haggerty Jr., a Queens political operative who had become close to Mr. Bloomberg, the mayor was curt and prickly.

First, he said that the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., had asked him not to talk about the case.

“There’s nothing else I can say about this,” he said.

When asked about reaction to critics of his contributions to the state’s Independence Party, which were at the heart of Mr. Haggerty’s legal woes, Mr. Bloomberg said: “I have a right to make donations to support people and parties that I think will help this city and this country and this state, and I’ll continue to do it.”

And about the question of why he hired poll watchers on Election Day?

“Miss!” Mr. Bloomberg began. “I’m sorry that my English isn’t apparently good enough for you.”

Finally, when asked how the case had affected him personally, since he and Mr. Haggerty had, by all accounts, developed a close bond, Mr. Bloomberg began: “Miss, I just said ——”

“What will you say to him next time ——”

“You’re not listening to the words, and the district attorney, Cy Vance, who I think is a very good district attorney, asked us not to talk and we’re not going to talk,” the mayor answered.

Mr. Bloomberg looked at another reporter and said, “We will take a legitimate question from you.”

Top Republican Indicted Over Bloomberg Campaign Funds by David Chen - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

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A top campaign operative for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is expected to be indicted on Monday by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in connection with charges that he stole $1 million in campaign funds, according to people familiar with the case.

The operative, John F. Haggerty Jr., 41, is expected to be charged with two counts of grand larceny and money laundering, according to people familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage a new conference Monday morning by Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney.

Mr. Haggerty’s attorney, Dennis C. Vacco, could not be reached for comment on Monday morning. But during apparent plea negotiations over the past few weeks, he has declined to discuss the case.

The exact details of the financial theft prosecutors claim Mr. Haggerty committed were not immediately available.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Vance declined to comment.
A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg also declined to comment. But one person close to the mayor said that a plea deal or an indictment had been anticipated for some time. “I had expected it to be done by now so maybe the fact that it hasn’t happened yet means they’re negotiating,” this person said.

The indictment culminates an investigation by Mr. Vance’s office into what became of a $750,000 campaign payment from Mr. Bloomberg that went to a company established by Mr. Haggerty, a veteran Queens Republican leader.

Mr. Bloomberg paid the state Independence Party, whose endorsement he had won, $1.2 million last year. The party then paid $750,000 of that money to Special Election Operations L.L.C., a company established by Mr. Haggerty, to bankroll an Election Day operation in northern Queens, with up to 300 workers reportedly paid $500 each.

But the party and the Bloomberg campaign believe that operation cost considerably less than $750,000, and they say that if Mr. Haggerty kept any extra money, he was not entitled to do so.

The investigation, which has been going on for months, has already raised questions about the unusual way Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign directed the payment, using personal checks from the mayor rather than the campaign’s official account.

And while people close to the case say neither the mayor nor the campaign is a target of the investigation, an indictment could be embarrassing for Mr. Bloomberg, who is said to have trusted Mr. Haggerty as a key liaison to the city’s Republicans.

On Friday, in a sign that the case was taking a more serious turn, a Manhattan judge ordered the lawyer for the state’s Independence Party to testify before a grand jury after prosecutors argued that the party was not cooperating with the investigation.

Vance Probes a Shady Bloomberg Campaign Staffer -- Editorial - NYPOST.com

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Sunlight may be about to fall on one of the more curious episodes of last year's mayoral campaign.

Manhattan DA Cy Vance has convened a grand jury to investigate a Bloomberg campaign consultant's disposition of $750,000 -- money he received after the mayor donated $1.2 million to the state Independence Party.

As The Post reported in January, Bloomberg wrote two checks totaling $600,000 to the Independence Party right before Election Day.

The party promptly paid $750,000 to a shadowy outfit called Special Election Operations, run by campaign consultant John Haggerty.

Getty Images

Michael Bloomberg

Ostensibly, the money was for workers to guard against poll-booth shenanigans.

But it's not clear if the firm's staff did so. In any event, the company didn't register with New York's secretary of state until nearly a month after the election.

Perhaps more to the point, Haggerty now can account for barely $150,000 of the cash. So, where did the rest go?

Was, as some suspect, Haggerty running a "street money" operation -- handing out cash to get voters to the polls? Or did he just pocket the remainder?

Haggerty associates now claim that he had a deal with the campaign to keep any leftover cash -- a charge former campaign spokesman and current Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson denies.

Is this just a simple case of a political operative ripping off the campaign and/or the Independence Party?

Or was he working at the behest of both organizations?

Billionaire Bloomberg was hardly shy about spending whatever it took last year -- on campaign personnel, advertising, mailings, etc.

Thus, the last-minute cash influx to the Independence Party and transfer to Haggerty rightly raises some eyebrows.

Rather than just make Haggerty the fall guy, Vance's grand jury needs to follow this money trail wherever it leads.

Bloomberg's $750K Payment for Election May Have Funded Purchase of Queens Home by Adam Lisberg - NY Daily News

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Inside sources say that John Haggerty may have used some of Bloomberg's $750,000 to purchase this home in Forest Hills

When Mayor Bloomberg funneled $750,000 to a longtime Queens ally last fall, he thought he was buying a citywide poll watching operation.

He may have paid for a house in Forest Hills Gardens, too.

The house was the childhood home of John Haggerty Jr., the Republican operative who has claimed he was working as a volunteer on Bloomberg's third-term campaign.

Haggerty has ducked calls to explain how he spent the $750,000 payment, which went into his newly formed "Special Election Operations LLC."

The money was channeled through the state Independence Party, which got $1.2 million from Bloomberg's pocket right before Election Day.

Sources inside and outside the Bloomberg campaign say it was supposed to buy an extensive Election Day operation, with up to 300 workers paid $500 each to make sure there was no funny business at poll sites.

That only adds up to $150,000, though. One source says the Independence Party can't account for $300,000 to $400,000 of the rest of the money - and has drawn up legal papers against Haggerty to locate the rest.

"It's just infuriating," the source said. "Haggerty probably made money throughout the campaign one way or another."

Special Election Operations got its $750,000 on Dec. 11.

Six days later, Haggerty bought out his brother Bart's share of the family home - paying $1.6 million to the estate of their late father, records show.

It's unclear how much of the purchase was in cash, but Haggerty apparently did not take out a mortgage. The next month, records show, Bart had enough money to buy a $619,000 apartment in Forest Hills - again, apparently without a mortgage.

So where did the Haggerty brothers get that cash? After all, it had been almost a year and a half since their father, a respected longtime lawyer in Albany, passed away.

In his will, he split most of his estate between the brothers - though he gave an extra $30,000 to Bart "due to the extra care, support and effort he expended on my behalf."

Haggerty had another potential pot of Bloomberg cash to tap as well: The mayor gave $120,000 on Nov. 20 to a new political committee Haggerty set up, the 28th Assembly District Republican Committee.

He did not respond to messages left at the house last week, or at the Rego Park office he rents for political operations. Bart did not respond to an e-mail.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. has issued subpoenas in the case, which may deter them from talking even if Haggerty has done nothing wrong.

Bloomberg campaign officials have generally defended Haggerty, who ran Election Day operations for the mayor's 2001 and 2005 campaigns through the Republican Party.

They say he put together an extensive operation in November that could well have cost $750,000. Campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said the campaign offered to pay Haggerty a salary or bonus, but he declined - which he would have been unlikely to do if he really needed money.

"The suggestion is unfair," Wolfson said. "If he was interested in money, he didn't demonstrate that during the campaign."

alisberg@nydailynews.com