He’s Mayor Boo!berg
Last Updated:8:01 AM, January 17, 2012
Posted:12:49 AM, January 17, 2012
Mayor Bloomberg drew jeers from Brooklyn to Harlem during Martin Luther King Jr. Day events yesterday.
At the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where he was one of a dozen city elected leaders and politicians on hand, Bloomberg was greeted with cackles, groans and boos the moment he stepped on stage.
“Come on, time out,” an exasperated Bloomberg said as he tried to talk about his education policy.
“For those of you who want to express yourself, there’s a time and a place for everything. We’re here to honor a man who valued education,” he implored.
Bloomberg’s attempt to compare his record on education — boasting of higher graduation rates for minorities — to the priorities of the slain civil-rights leader only escalated the booing.
“Thank you, that’s very genteel,” he said, looking toward hecklers in the audience. “You probably belong in — never mind.”
That remark brought a stunned silence to the audience, before Bloomberg quickly wrapped up.
Gary Brown, 46, of Fort Greene said he showed up at the Brooklyn event to honor King — not Bloomberg.
“I just don’t like him. I can’t believe he even showed up,” Brown said.
Bloomberg didn’t draw any more warmth during an event at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network headquarters in Harlem.
The packed house jeered Hizzoner, giving him the coldest reception of any of the speakers on the dais, including the Democratic candidates seeking to replace him at City Hall.
Sharpton even tried to quiet the crowd by saying he had invited Bloomberg to discuss his bid to curb gun violence.
The crowd booed Bloomberg’s remarks about public education, but applauded his anti-gun comments.
“We’ve made some enormous progress over the last 10 years. Crime and murders are way down. Graduation and test scores are up,” Bloomberg said, prompting hecklers to criticize his education record.
“Come on, if you don’t want crime to go down and test scores to go up, then we have nothing in common,” he said.
“That’s what we all should want. That’s what Dr. King would have wanted.”
Additional reporting by Erik Kriss in Albany and David K. Li in New York
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