Bloomberg disses Harlem's Apollo

No bombs were found in baby carriages in New York City on the weekend starting Friday, Oct. 7.

Thousands of cops flooded the subways. Troops armed with loaded M-16s patrolled Pennsylvania Station because of an alleged threat of strollers carrying explosives. The hemisphere's busiest train depot was shut down for several hours.

All this even though Russ Knocke, a spokesperson for Bush's Homeland Security Department, had expressed "very serious doubts" over whether any "terrorist" danger existed.

That didn't stop New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg from trying to scare the daylights out of people. New Yorkers are asking whether the billionaire mayor was just looking for favorable headlines while diverting attention away from criticism over his ducking out of a debate with his election opponents at Harlem's world-famous Apollo Theater.

The capitalist media conferred sainthood on crudely racist Rudy Giuliani following 9/11. So why shouldn't media tycoon Bloomberg try to be reelected through terrorist alerts?

Michael Bloomberg should have showed up in Harlem, if only out of respect for the memory of Alberta Spruill, the 57-year-old Harlem resident who died of a heart attack on May 16, 2003, shortly after cops threw a concussion grenade at her door.

Less than a week later, Ousmane Zongo was gunned down by a police officer in a warehouse where the unarmed Burkina Faso immigrant repaired African crafts. Timothy Stansbury Jr. was killed on Jan. 25, 2004, in Bedford-Stuyvesant's Louis Armstrong Houses by Officer Richard Neri, who claimed he was "startled" by the Black teenager.

This terrorism took place during Bloomberg's first term as mayor. Now he's seeking a second term.

Forbes magazine estimates that Bloomberg has a fortune of $5.1 billion. According to the CIA's World Fact Book, that's a larger amount than the Gross National Product of Burundi, which has 6.4 million people.

If this billionaire gave $10,000 to every one of the 100,000 people stranded in New Orleans, he'd still have 80 percent of his wealth left.

The 40th richest person in the United States actually vetoed a bill to clean up lead paint in apartments. Bloomberg said it would cost landlords too much money. Real estate interests claimed "only" 5,000 children suffered from lead poisoning.

Every year 5,000 kids, overwhelmingly Latin@ and African-American, were being brain-damaged in New York City because of lead. City Council member Charles Barron led a struggle that overrode Bloomberg's veto.

Bloomberg doesn't have to worry about lead paint in his private mansion at 17 East 79th St. in Manhattan. Or his 26-acre estate in Westchester County.

Any remaining lead paint was presumably removed during a $10.5-million rehab of Bloomberg's oceanfront home in Bermuda. Mayor Mike also has an apartment in London's Cadogan Square and a condominium in Vail, Colo.

Every night 10,000 people sleep on New York's streets or in shelters.

Even The New York Times is concerned about Bloomberg spending $50 million so far on his re-election. In 2001 he spent $75 million of his fortune, or $105 per vote. A lot of money—but the rewards he has delivered to his fellow billionaires come to so much more.

So when Bloomberg cries "terrorist," the people should be on alert—and watching his hands, not his lips.