Giuliani: I saved thousands of black lives

Rudy Giuliani on Monday defended comments he made in a heated back and forth over the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, this weekend with Georgetown University sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson, pointing to his own tenure as mayor of New York City.

“I probably saved more black lives as mayor of New York City than any mayor in the history of the city, with the possible exception of Mike Bloomberg, who was there for 12 years,” Giuliani said on “Fox & Friends.”


“When I came into office, thousands of blacks were being killed every year, by the time I left office, it was down to about 200. I’d like to see if Dr. Dyson has ever saved as many lives in his community as I’ve saved,” Giuliani continued.

The two got into a tense confrontation Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the shooting of Michael Brown and the criminal justice system, which Dyson said, “continues to impose undue burdens on African-American, Latino and other poor people.”

“The white police officers wouldn’t be there if you weren’t killing each other 70-75 percent of the time,” Giuliani responded on the show, adding that “93 percent of blacks are killed by other blacks.”

“Look at this! This is the defensive mechanism of white supremacy in your mind, sir!” Dyson said later.

On Monday, Giuliani said, “The danger to a black child in America is not a white police officer. That’s going to happen less than 1 percent of the time. … The danger is another black.”

Giuliani also took to task protesters in Ferguson.

“What if they spent an equal amount of time trying to straighten out that horrendous crime problem that exists. … These numbers are overwhelming, when you look at this, it could make you cry,” Giuliani said.