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Profile: Bernard Kerik
Bernard Kerik - chosen by President Bush to protect the US from security threats - is no stranger to danger. The nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, known as "Bernie" to his friends and colleagues, has worked in the fields of law enforcement and security for decades. Mr Kerik is a tough-talking former street cop and undercover narcotics officer. His background is very different to that of Tom Ridge whom he will be replacing.While Mr Ridge is a Harvard-educated, former congressman and governor of Pennsylvania, Mr Kerik's story is one of a battle against the odds to become New York City's top cop and then the country's head of domestic security. Growing up in a tough neighbourhood of Paterson, New Jersey, no one would have known that he would go on to lead one of the biggest police forces in the world, winning plaudits for overseeing the police department's heroic efforts in the wake of the 11 September 2001 terror attacks. His mother had abandoned him as a toddler and he spent his childhood in the homes of relatives and friends until his father was awarded custody. It was not until decades later, while writing his memoirs, that he discovered his mother had been an alcoholic prostitute who had been murdered in Ohio. Mr Kerik dropped out of high school to join the army, where he became a military policeman stationed in South Korea. After a few years, he left to work as a security expert in the Middle East, including a stint with the Saudi royal family. But he had always wanted to be a policeman and it was to the New York Police Department that he turned. He joined the force in 1986 as a street cop and became a star undercover narcotics detective who helped bring down members of Colombia's Cali cartel. In 1991, he was awarded the NYPD Medal of Valor for his role in a shoot-out during a drugs bust in Washington Heights. Posted by: tipper 2004-12-03 |
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