Jerry H. Goldfeder, a veteran elections lawyer who is representing the city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., in his mayoral bid, said, "My practice is booming and I feel grateful to have such interesting work during this recession".
She praised the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, and made no reference to the department's controversial stop-and-frisk practice, which other mayoral candidates have criticized as discriminatory against blacks and Hispanics.
With legislation now in place to provide citizens with some jurisdiction over their fate in unjust instances of stop-and-frisk, there is some hope that the next mayoral administration will ameliorate the practice all together.
Nonetheless, it is clear that some mayoral budget aides have understood the practice all along.
William A. Johnson Jr., the mayor of Rochester, welcomed the suggestion to expand mayoral control over the schools, as currently practiced in New York City, to his city, Buffalo, Yonkers and Syracuse.
Although the 1999 lawsuit had been settled, the plaintiffs returned to court in that case to accuse the department of a surge in racially motivated street stops under the policing practices of a new mayoral administration.
However, it's hard to know exactly how long it will last in practice, particularly when the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday will likely bring in a new guy Democrat Bill de Blasio who is less keen on the policy than lame duck Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a staunch defender of his baby.
Q. Do you want to maintain mayoral control of New York City schools as currently practiced, or do you favor modifying it?
Bill Bratton, the former New York police commissioner, former Los Angeles chief of police and the go-to policing guru for mayoral candidates of both parties this year, says the practice is indispensable and uncontroversial when done right: it should be based on a reasonable suspicion, it should be done with respect, and it should be employed consistently.
His last day as the department's deputy commissioner for public information will be Aug. 19, weeks before the culmination of a Democratic mayoral primary in which the Police Department's stop-and-frisk practices have come under intense scrutiny.
