The Bloomberg Nation

How downright scary is this?

"I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world.  I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom's annoyance.  We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have." -Mayor Michael Bloomberg

The New York Observer recorded the above quote from a speech Mayor Bloomberg gave to students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on 29 November 2011.  It is simply shocking to me that he would claim such an "army" mere weeks after citizens were brutalized in the streets.  

It is only in the light of this human tragedy that burning the Occupy Wall Street Library is a lesser evil.  The obsession with power makes this seemingly moderate mayor come off as a brute.  That he would cite these powers as valuable experience for the presidency is as clear of a sign of megalomania we citizens can get from elected officials.

What is more frightening is that this admission comes only a few months after the shocking news that the NYPD has been working closely with the CIA in order to secretly spy on citizens in the years since 11 September 2001.  As the Huffington Post reports this is still going on, unabated, and without any real accountability.  Furthermore, the police department has been using its funding to spy across the tri-state area, which is clearly a violation of its jurisdiction.

These actions, taken together, make it very easy to present the case that the New York Police Department is out of control.  In addition the department and the mayor's administration have hardly offered apologies for any of these "minor" atrocities.  What happened to protecting and serving?  What happened to the democratic spirit in the governance of New York City?