Kerik's life not all an open book

[cal04]

It is the story of a man who overcame economic hardships and a lack of formal education through the sheer force of his personality.It is also a story of a man whose life and career have been dogged by charges of impropriety, although none have stuck.And it is a story of mystery as key details of Kerik's life remain untold. He spent two years in Saudi Arabia as a contract military employee, then returned to New Jersey and joined the Passaic County sheriff's department, becoming warden of the county jail.

While in Saudi Arabia, he applied to the NYPD but never received a reply. With a flourish characteristic of many of his actions, he wrote a letter of complaint to then mayor Ed Koch. An application was sent forthwith. In August 2000, Giuliani appointed Kerik to succeed Howard Safir as police commissioner. He selected Kerik, an eight-year veteran and third-grade detective, over First Deputy Joe Dunne, a 30-year veteran. Kerik's selection came despite the fact that he lacked a college degree - a requirement established in 1985 by then-Commissioner Ben Ward for anyone promoted above captain.

Then, 9/11 occurred. With Giuliani, Kerik became a constant presence at the World Trade Center site. At the same time, Kerik was accused of using photographs taken by detectives at the WTC site for his book, which was published that November. He agreed to pay $2,500 to settle a Conflict of Interest Board finding that he had improperly used three city cops to travel to Ohio to learn details about his mother for the book.

After his publisher, Judith Regan, complained her cell phone was stolen while she was on a Fox television show, detectives were sent to the homes of Fox employees who were on the set at the time.
He was also accused of awarding the department's top medals to his cronies, one of whom was the chief who sent the detectives to the homes of the Fox employees. A second was one of the cops who traveled to Ohio. Earlier this year, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly raised questions about Kerik's ordering four $50,000 high-tech doors for One Police Plaza, although no one has produced any evidence of this.




rest of the article
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/columnists/ny-nyplaz034063980dec03,0,4849837.column?coll=ny-ny-columnists

[NYC]

1. I wonder if his book sold well.

I never heard about it before yesterday.

[lapfog_1]

2. I heard on MSGOP that he dropped out of high school

so he could go to work as a prison guard.

Great.

Did he ever at least get a high school diploma?
He is now likely the fourth or fifth most important person
in government.

What talent our fearless leader is surrounding himself with!
(heavy sarcasm)

[flordehinojos]

3. bush wants no one taller than him (remember how in the debates the

television had to project the image that he was at least as tall as Kerry ... and I think something similar happened when he was in Chile.

It seems that he wants no one in his cabinet who will have a more learning or better brains than he.

Plus, the apppointment of this Kerrick (sp?) tells you what bush really thinks of homeland security along with what he is really planning for homeland security and that is to turn this country into a police state and this kerrick guy has the soul and the makings of being able to do just that.

[rodeodance]

4. it is his huge body as well through "the sheer force of his personality"

that he succeeded---seems to me!! I would not want to pick an argument with him!!

[HamdenRice]

5. As a NYC resident, the one good thing I remember about Kerik ...

was not 9/11, but his tenure before that. Few outside NYC understand that Giuliani was a blood-thirsty murderous psychopath who in his zeal to reduce crime, basically ordered the NYC police to stop and frisk virtually every black male in the city. This led to forseeable tragedies, like Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorsmond and many others being gunned down by NYPD officers for no reason.

The architects of the original, successful crime prevention program, like Chief William Bratton disagreed with this over-aggressive, unapologetic approach and were all eventually fired by Giuliani so he could take policing in his murderous direction. When everyone else was gone, Giuliana brought in a running dog syncophant named Howard Safir, who basically parroted Giuliani's position, which seemed to be that the only good NYC black male civilian is a dead civilian.

When the NYPD murder rampage reached its peak, Safir quit and Giuliani brought in Kerik. Kerik brought some semblance of sanity to the NYPD, and it became safe for black men to walk the streets again.