Koch Defends Giuliani and Bloomberg Remarks. 'Weeps' for Detroit

Ed Koch, a Bloomberg supporter and Giuliani hater, doesn’t find anything objectionable in what the former mayor told an audience in Borough Park this weekend.

Giuliani told attendances at a breakfast yesterday that crime could return to their pre-1993 levels if Bloomberg weren’t elected.

Koch said anyone who sees racial undertones there is “simply looking to discredit Rudy and Bloomberg. The words themselves are not racist.”

“It’s amazing that Mike Bloomberg has been able to reduce crime each year by an enormous percentage over and above what Rudy did,” said Koch. Crime rates, he said, “depends who the mayor is” and said yes, “it could go back.”

When asked about Bloomberg later pointing to Detroit as an example of how a great city can fall to bits, Koch said that too was a statement of fact, and, if anything, an understatement.

“Detroit is never going to recover. Never going to recover. And it is one of the saddest of American cities’ plights. That’s not racist. That is a fact. Detroit makes you weep. I think the people of Detroit would agree,” said Koch.

He said the reason for that city’s decline was because they were dependant on one industry which has fallen on hard times.

“It doesn’t make cars anymore. It was the industry,” he said.

As for the strategy of using Giuliani, one of the most recognizable figures in the Republican Party, to help Bloomberg win votes in a citywide race, Kock was supportive.

“I see Rudy has a huge, though less than majority, support in city of New York, and state of New York,” he said. “To not recognize Rudy has a huge base means you are not really expert in politics in the state of New York.”