NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly gets rave reviews for handling of Empire State shootings - Talk of run for New York mayor against Christine Quinn will be revived

New York City Police Commisioner Ray Kelly

New York is lucky to have in Police Commissioner Ray Kelly a man who inspires confidence and embodies authority when a crisis hits New York.

Yesterday, when a gunman shot a former co-worker and two police officers shot him dead at the Empire State Building, Kelly was on the scene in a flash and within two hours had issued a complete account of what happened to the massed ranks of press.

It was a typical Kelly performance, crisp, confident and all business. Ironically standing behind him was the woman he could face in a race for New York Mayor next year if he so chooses to run.

Republicans in the city salivate at the idea that Kelly might run for them in 2013. He is the only candidate they could lure who could win the office. While he has not ruled out a run, it might take a lot for the 70-year-old to throw his hat in the ring.

Christine Quinn, the City Council speaker, took the opportunity of the shooting and the fact that it occurred in the district she represents to look tough on crime and tie herself to the popular mayor and police commissioner.

In every camera shot she was square jawed and serious, standing either directly beside or behind the mayor and the commissioner.

The word is Kelly and Quinn are not bosom buddies and the body language between them certainly indicated that.

It is easy to see why. According to polls, Quinn is easily outstripping her Democratic opponents and Kelly may be the only remaining block to her becoming mayor.

Kelly would certainly have a major shot, especially in the white Catholic boroughs where he would be very popular.

Chances are that he won’t run but it is no sure thing. In his response to the Empire State Building killings, Kelly showed again his calmness under pressure and ability to inspire confidence and a feeling of security.

Those are handy attributes if you are thinking of getting into the political game.

NYPD top cop Ray Kelly may be all wrong in the Etan Patz case -- Latest suspect Pedro Hernandez just one of three so far to be fingered

NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly

The Etan Patz murder 33 years ago was one of the most significant in America's crime history.

Nothing was ever the same again after the six-year-old left his parent's West Village apartment  in New York to walk to school alone for the first time.

He never made it and his murder had never been solved.

Many crime experts date the explosion of fear in America over crime to that killing - the moment when we all felt less safe

Now it may become significant again for a very different reason.

Police Chief Ray Kelly has essentially accused a 51-year old, Pedro Hernandez, of carrying out the killing.

Except there is no evidence other than a confession by Hernandez whose family admits he has deep psychiatric problems.

There is no body, no witnesses, no physical evidence linking him to the crime.

If Hernandez withdraws his confession the police have no case.

Worse, a man called Jose Ramos, a convicted pedophile, was ruled to have committed the crime in a civil case by a Manhattan judge in 2004.

"Investigators both from federal prosecutors' office and the FBI over an extended period of time built up a tremendous amount of circumstantial evidence," Murray Weiss, a police reporter who covered the Patz case told CBS.

The lawyer for the Patzs , Brian O'Dwyer, said at the time that winning the lawsuit made it clear. "The point is to establish once and for all that Ramos is responsible for Etan's death."

So who is it, Hernandez or Ramos?

Or maybe it is someone else altogether; just a few weeks back cops tore apart a basement seeking to link a third man, Othniel Miller, to the killing.

They found nothing but Miller’s estranged wife claimed he confessed to the crime.

So that's three suspects right there.

When the Lindbergh child killing happened in 1932, over thirty delusional people admitted to the crime.

The Etan Patz case is getting just as crazy.

Ray Kelly may well have made a massive mistake here. First the press conference essentially announcing guilt, then the arrest, then the trial, then the verdict..

It is all backwards, like this tragic case has long been.

I believe it is a case almost impossible to solve bar some incredible evidence find.

"It's going to be very difficult to convince a jury," Larry Kobilinsky, a doctor of forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told CBS .

"Normally we collect the physical evidence and talk to the witnesses; then we catch a suspect, interrogate him and then sometimes they confess," said Kobilinsky. "This is just the reverse."

He has it right.

Fox Anchor Greg Kelly seems like a victim not a rapist in allegations against him -- Case doesn't add up against son of NYPD Chief Ray Kelly

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and his son Greg

Greg Kelly seems like the victim in the rape case alleged against him.

That may not be the politically correct thing to say but I bet it turns out to be the truth.

There is something deeply suspicious about how this whole affair has entered the public domain.

Three months after an alleged rape a woman walks into a police station and makes an accusation.

She must know after that length of time a successful prosecution is almost impossible.

There is no possible physical evidence, no doctor's report, no third party, seemingly, other than her boyfriend who has his own questions to answer quite obviously.

So is there another motive?

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The son of the NYPD Chief Ray Kelly and a very successful anchor for Good Day New York on Fox News has been a singular outstanding guy throughout his career.

A former marine, he covered the White House and America's various wars before taking over the Good Day New York slot.

Now his career is in deep jeopardy because of a rape accusation, four months old when it was made.

It is an incredibly serious allegation, which, if true, deserves the full punishment of the law.

But that seems like a massive outside possibility.

What happened that night after Kelly and the paralegal woman whom he had met and went for drinks with will strictly be a he said/she said series of allegations.

We know they willingly went back to her law firm because she told him her boyfriend was home in her place.

We know they texted and talked after the alleged assault and that the woman later claimed she was pregnant by him.

We also know that her boyfriend, clearly angered by what had transpired, tried to raise it publicly with Kelly's father, the police commissioner .

Kelly is in a no win situation until the District Attorney decides whether to proceed with charges or not.

But it seems to me that the allegations against him are flimsy to say the least.

I suspect the boyfriend was very angry when he heard about the encounter and this stems from that moment.

But time will tell.

The New York Post this morning reports that investigators “don’t buy her story,”

“It sounds like a bunch of BS” the source said.

Another source said, “It sounds like she got caught [cheating] by her boyfriend, and then he forces her hand: ‘If you’re not lying, you better report.’

As I said much more to come out.

Clearing Zuccotti Park least bad option for Bloomberg and top cop Ray Kelly - But Occupy Wall Street won't go away you know

Protesters stand-up to cops at OWS

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was damned if he did and damned if he didn't clear Zuccotti Park where the Occupy Wall Street protesters had been gathered for almost two months now.

In the event the city decided to move when the news of a shutdown of Wall Street was due for Thursday this week, disrupting the financial center with a day long carnival.

In addition business owners and communities who lived near the park had reached breaking point with the protesters,claiming lost sales and incessant noise all night long from the camp.
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Even the protesters themselves had reached the point where they were uncertain what to do next. A harsh winter looms and there were increasing tales of robberies and mentally ill mixing with the groups.

There was no easy solution and Kelly and his boss Michael Bloomberg had clearly wrestled with the right course of action for weeks now.

A police captain referred to health and safety hazards when announcing the park would be cleared

Closing down the camp must have seemed like the best of a list of bad options.

But is is by no means clear that is how it will turn out.

The Occupy Wall Street group struck a huge chord, not just across the nation but across the world .

They changed the political dynamic, forcing attention on those who through greed cratered the economy yet got away scot free while the 99 per cent of ordinary folk continue to suffer in the deep recession.

In real terms the occupiers can claim victory for changing the mindset where the Tea Party were seen as the only motivated, activist group on the political landscape.

There is now a solid counterweight to their argument that the only culprit for the financial mess was government mishandling.

This debate will play out all the way through the 2012 elections.

The clearing of Zuccotti Park is just the latest chapter to unfold.

But it will not be the last.