Defunding police departments would be "totally nuts," former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday, but said added that some police officers need better training.
"They need better-trained police (with) intensive training in courtesy, professionalism, and respect," Giuliani, who is one of President Donald Trump's personal attorneys, told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo. "I'm calling for actually a very intense course. You review that every three years ... you put it in their evaluation."
In New York, the police department is evaluated on "merit," said Giuliani, and records are kept about every arrest and how many complaints are made about officers.
Meanwhile, he said he hopes the defunding movement, along with some calls to end police departments will burn out, and that he doesn't know what motives some elected officials, like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are using to call for defunding police.
"They don't want us to have police?" he said. "Each one of them said some silly things about terrorism, right? Have we forgotten September 11? Have we forgotten the Boston Marathon? Have we forgotten all of the attempts to attack us in New York that the New York City Police Department and the FBI stopped?"
The answer, he said "is to increase the number of police in this country."
At the same time, Giuliani said he would be "a fool" to deny there are "bad apples" among police officers.
"I put 70 bad apples in jail when I was a mayor," said Giuliani. "I know it a lot better than these jerks who are talking about ridiculous solutions. I know how to catch them. I know how to put them in jail."
Meanwhile, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been charged in the death of George Floyd, had nearly 20 documented infractions, something that Giuliani said should not happen.
"That is a very poorly run police department," said Giuliani, pointing out there were no supervisors on the scene."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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