Harper's had a good cover story on this too last month. This piece is a model of independent journalism from a paper now run as a non-profit. Coincidence?

Good to know MSM outside New York are checking out Giuliani's claims. However, I think they missed one of the reasons for the decrease in crime: a drop in the population of young males, normally the group responsible for the most crime; not enough of them had been born during the years that would have made them the crime-committing cohort in the 1990s. Also no mention of the overly zealous policing that left innocent people dead in the streets. Still, good to know not everyone is buying America's Mayor's claims.

this seems a fair appraisal of guiliani's claims regarding crime in new york while he was mayor. includes stats, gains, views of those working with him, and other citizenry, and the social science factors which may mean there were other reasons and means for the facts. what wasn't here are examples of what it could mean for him to bring, as he promises, the same systems to bear if he were president of a country.