Ray Kelly, the longest-serving police commissioner in New York history, touted his crime-fighting record and sounded like a mayoral candidate at the launch party for his book “Vigilance.” He also showed off his skills on the drums.
The event was co-hosted by Kelly’s former boss, Michael Bloomberg, and Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Graydon Carter, in the East 78th Street limestone mansion that houses Bloomberg Philanthropies.
“Working for you was a tremendous honor,” Kelly said to Bloomberg before an eclectic crowd that included US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, Manhattan DA Cy Vance, Ronald Perelman, Lorne Michaels, political consultant Howard Wolfson, Reinaldo and Carolina Herrera, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and Henry and Nancy Kissinger.
After the 9/11 attack, “the naysayers said another terrorist attack was inevitable. Crime would only go up. Tax revenues were down . . . Tourists were not coming to New York. Corporations were leaving the city.
“Mike Bloomberg decided to run for mayor at the most critical time in the history of the city,” Kelly said. “The city was pulled back from the abyss, and we owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude. We’ll never see another mayor like Mike Bloomberg.”
Kelly — stung by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s criticism of stop-and-frisk — said, “We battled crime down to historic lows. We had record-low murders, record-low shootings, record-low shootings by police officers. As a result, there were 9,500 fewer murders on Michael Bloomberg’s watch.”
Without mentioning de Blasio, Kelly said, “So that is the package the Bloomberg administration left for the incoming administration.”
Kelly, who writes in his book about learning to play the drums in grammar school at St. Gabriel’s on the Upper West Side, was presented with a pair of drumsticks and sat down behind a full drum kit.
As he pounded away like Gene Krupa, his wife, Veronica — “the love of my life,” as he describes her — danced behind him. Their sons James and Gregory, co-host of “Good Day New York,” smiled.