The crowd exiting the Whitehall Ferry Terminal was treated to a sight normally seen in the Times Square area: a number of black men dressed in Middle Eastern garb representing a group called the Twelve Tribes of Ancient Israel. The man on the makeshift platform with the microphone was arguing with a white woman who gesticulated angrily. “If you don’t like what I’m saying, take it up with the NYPD,” he said confidently, his aide-de-camp waving papers at the woman. The group’s remarks often generate anger and accusations that they are hate speech clothed in biblical references, but this time the speaker went off topic.

“Who’s your mayor now? Is it Bloomberg? He’s just a businessman. He don’t care about you. He’s got his radio show and his business, but he don’t care about the little guy,” the man said, capturing the attention of passers-by. “Now Giuliani had … us arrested. You gotta give him credit for that,” he said.

The man thus pinpointed a major difference between the two administrations: Mayor Giuliani attacked quality of life crimes by going after the criminal type, while Mayor Bloomberg attacks petty crimes by collaring regular citizens, imposing heavy fines on those who can pay them.

A woman is given a ticket for putting her bag on the seat next to her in an empty subway car. Meanwhile, the derelicts are back sleeping on several seats, but because there’s no point in issuing them summonses they remain undisturbed. Parking fines are being increased again in July. Sanitation fines also target law-abiding homeowners who put trash out on the wrong day or too early before pickup. Ashtrays on the counters? That’s a no-no, too.

Mr. Giuliani may not have taken over the Board of Education, as Mr. Bloomberg did, but he encouraged support of the inner city scholarship programs that provided access to private schools. Mr. Bloomberg, on the other hand, is always seeking additional money for the public schools, which perform poorly even with a $14 billion budget.

Then there’s the gun control legislation that Mr. Bloomberg is hawking, delighting advocates who ignore statistics that discredit such laws. No matter how many laws are passed to control the sales, ownership, or distribution of guns, criminals will bypass them. Law-abiding citizens in New York cannot obtain legal arms to defend themselves against the lawless, and that is frightening to potential victims.

As the son of Holocaust survivors, Ralph Rubinek is acutely aware of how governments can strip the citizen’s right to bear arms. The National Rifle Association member sent me a link to a video of a recent Klu Klux Klan rally where the speakers blamed the oil crisis, unemployment, and the war in Iraq on the Jews. It was disgusting to see these morons chant “Seig Heil” over and over.

It would be easy for some to debunk Mr. Rubinek’s anxiety about such events as unfounded paranoia if one didn’t remember the three-day pogrom in Crown Heights during the Dinkins administration in which blacks roamed the streets shouting “kill the Jews.” Mr. Giuliani made such an event unthinkable. Anti-Semitism is on the rise all over the world as haters blame the Iraqi war on Israel and the Jews. How can any Jewish person not understand the importance of the Second Amendment?

Although Mr. Giuliani was not popular with civil libertarians before September 11, 2001, he helped bring about ethnic peace in New York City because he fostered a universal standard of decency.The quality of life policing methods he promoted with his first chief of police, William Bratton, was applied impartially, to all offenders. In spite of the hue and cry by civil rights groups, minorities actually benefited from these tactics, as crime fell dramatically in their communities.

I once read that all crime is committed by only 3% of the population; that percentage was targeted by the NYPD in the Giuliani administration. Despite reports that crime is down in New York, the city doesn’t feel safe. A homeless man this week confessed to stabbing four people, including two Canadian tourists in the Times Square area and a Texan on a C subway train. Meanwhile the mayor goes after smokers, paint that adheres to metal, junk food in bodegas, and restaurant menus. These tactics may make statements, but they don’t accomplish much.

Those men spouting hatred from that podium are rejoicing that Mr. Giuliani is no longer mayor.

I’m not.