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Bloomberg Booed At MLK Day Commemoration
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Jan 18, 2011
Modified Jan 18, 2011
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NYC Mayor's Office
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Jan 18, 2011
Modified Jan 18, 2011
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We've already heard of Mayor Bloomberg's post-MLK speech gaffe, but those present say that his speech at the National Action Network's annual Martin Luther King Day event didn't go so great either. He was booed so much when he made his entrance that the beginning of his speech as inaudible, and about a dozen people continued heckling him throughout his speech. (The Wall Street Journal thinks it's residual blizzard anger, ABC 7 thinks its about Cathie Black.) However, he reportedly turned those raspberries into lemonade by the end of the night.
Of course, his humor fell flat, with nobody laughing when he suggested, "[Sharpton] and I agree on more than you and he agree on." He also quipped, "It is also amazing here in New York that [32BJ President Mike] Fishman and Bloomberg would be addressing the National Action Network. It is like [Jeff] Zucker and [Jerry] Speyer and Bloomberg lighting the Christmas Tree this year at Rockefeller Center. Only in New York would you see something like that." When that didn't work, he got down to business.
Bloomberg outlined three goals for the city that won him applause at the end of the night: taking control of juvenile facilities from the state, improving schools and reducing "the kind of gun violence that took King’s life." However, that classic Bloomberg un-self awareness reared its head when he said, "President Obama and [Education Secretary] Arne Duncan think that New York City is the national model for what you do with a school system." One person reportedly shouted, "No, they don't!" Dont' worry, Bloomberg, your iPad still loves you.
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