Reacting to news that AG Eliot Spitzer won't seek jail time for Roger Toussaint, Mayor Bloomberg said today, "I don’t have any personal views. That’s up to the prosecutors... I want to make sure that there’s good, safe, efficient, affordable mass transit for the people of this city and then anybody that breaks the law, there’s a whole process of district attorneys and judges to take care of that, and they’ll do their job."
That’s interesting because Dec. 20, the day of the transit strike, Bloomberg said, “Roger Toussaint and the TWU have shamefully decided they don't care about the people they work for and that they have no respect for the law. The leadership of the TWU has thuggishly turned their backs on New York City, and disgraced the noble concept of public service.”
On the 21st, the mayor said, “You break the law, you’re not going to get away with it. Period. End of story.”
Sounds like Bloomberg had a personal view then.
But, Bloomberg never outright called for Toussaint’s arrest during the strike.
“From a practical point of view, a fine against the union would probably be a more productive kind of deterrent than putting somebody in jail where you then can’t negotiate with them,” he said.
-- Chuck Bennett
