Giuliani: Beyonce's VMA Performance 'A Shame'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is criticizing Beyonce's performance at MTV's Video Music Awards.
At one point during her 16-minute performance Sunday night, the pop superstar's backup dancers were dressed as angels before being "shot" by red lights that many believed to be representing police brutality. Beyonce also showed up to the awards show with the mothers of black men who were killed by police, including Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner.
Giuliani called it "a shame" during an appearance on "Fox & Friends" on Monday.
"You're asking the wrong person because I had five uncles who were police officers, two cousins who were, and one who died in the line of duty. I ran the largest and best police department in the world – the New York Police Department – and I saved more black lives than any of those people you saw on stage by reducing crime, and particularly homicide, by 75 percent," the former mayor said.
Giuliani believes his policies saved the lives of 4,000 to 5,000 African-Americans.
"So if you're going to do that, then you should symbolize why the police officers are in those neighborhoods and what are you going to do about it and what are you doing about it? To me, it's two easy answers: a much better education and a good job," he told "Fox & Friends."
Giuliani also said he helped to turn the areas of Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, around.
"I was sick when I saw all the politicians standing in Baltimore after the police situation and saying nobody has done anything for this community in 50 years," he said, referring to the death of Freddie Gray and the subsequent unrest. "Well, that is a heck of a thing to say because they have been in charge for 50 years, and they have failed the community. I didn't fail Harlem, I turned Harlem around. I didn't fail Bedford-Stuyvesant, I turned it around."
This isn't the first time Giuliani slammed a Beyonce performance as he called her Super Bowl halftime show "outrageous" because it disrespected police officers.
"This is football, not Hollywood, and I thought it was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers who are the people who protect her and protect us, and keep us alive," Giuliani told Fox News in February. "And what we should be doing in the African-American community, and all communities, is build up respect for police officers, and focus on the fact that when something does go wrong, okay, we'll work on that."
Beyonce's VMA wins included video of the year, best female video, pop video, breakthrough long-form video, choreography, direction, cinematography and editing.
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