Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani laughed at current Mayor Bill de Blasio's comment that Giuliani
"fundamentally misunderstands reality" when it comes to how police treat young black men.
"That is absolutely hilarious – that I fundamentally misunderstand reality, when, in fact, what he's doing is propounding the idea that the police are responsible for this," Giuliani said Monday on Fox News Channel's
"Hannity."
The two mayors have traded jabs ever since a Staten Island grand jury last week declined to indict white NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner, who resisted arrest and was taken down by Pantaleo and other officers for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes on the street.
During the Republican Giuliani's term in the 1990s he cracked down on crime in the city. The left-leaning de Blasio immediately ended the controversial stop-and-frisk policy that many say unfairly targeted innocent minorities when he assumed office this year.
Giuliani on Monday said he has never denied that the police at times misbehave and act criminally.
"I don't remember Mayor de Blasio ever putting in police officers in prison. I've put about 70 in prison," the former federal prosecutor said.
"Police officers can misbehave, and they are part of the problem," he said. "However, 96 percent of the problem is black-on-black crime. And [de Blasio's] failure to recognize that is making this situation worse."
De Blasio angered the police unions and conservatives when he said in a press conference after the grand jury's decision that he has had to tell his bi-racial son to be extra careful when dealing with the police because of his race.
"What this indicated to me is the mayor has a hard time getting past his ideology," Giuliani said.
The former mayor said there is perhaps a 2 percent chance a black youth will be shot by police, while there is a 90 percent chance that if he is shot it will be by another black person.
"So you'd better train him how not to get shot that other 90 percent of the time," Giuliani said.
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