Greg Kelly INTERVIEW
/The BLUE Magazine recently spoke with NewsMax broadcaster and author Greg Kelly. He is the son of former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. In this intriguing cover story interview, we discuss his latest book Justice for All: How the Left is Wrong About Law Enforcement, the current status of law enforcement in modern society, growing up the son of a law enforcement icon, his military service, spirituality and much more. In this candid interview, you will find that Greg Kelly’s passion, humbleness, and support for law enforcement are unmatched. Thank you Greg Kelly and NewsMax for standing up for law enforcement and the rule of law.
Here are some highlights of our discussion…
The BLUE Magazine: We wish to congratulate you on your newly released book Justice for All: How the Left Is Wrong About Law Enforcement. Let’s begin. Who is Greg Kelly?
Greg Kelly: Well, thanks for asking. Greg Kelly is a broadcast journalist based in New York City, married, father of two girls, ages three and one. I have been in journalism. I call myself actually a talk show host, not a journalist, quite frankly, for a number of reasons. I've been doing this for 23 years. Prior to that, I was a Marine Corps officer for nine years — active duty, flew Harrier jets, deployed all over the world. I grew up in the suburbs of New York City with my mother and father. My father, of course, Ray Kelly, is the longest serving police commissioner in New York City history. And that's a little bit about who I am. And I am very grateful to God for putting me in a position where I can pursue the truth without fear.
What was it like growing up in a law enforcement family?
My father wasn't strict. Some people have this idea that a cop is going to be really strict in an authoritarian type figure. He wasn't. He was very funny and we all had a great time. I write in the book about how I was only vaguely aware of what he did until I saw him in action one day take out his gun pursuing a purse snatcher. It was like the wildest thing I had ever seen, and I thought he was the coolest guy in the world. And I was especially impressed that by the time he got home after this episode, which I still remember, and he was done talking about it, I mean, he had moved on to like, you know, do we need milk? So it was a very small part of his life. I was proud of him and I was very intrigued by his line of work. It's interesting, it was somewhat looked down upon at the time.
What led you to journalism?
I was always interested in current events. I always would as a form of escapism, really, just not escapism from anything negative. But it was an adventure. Read about things in faraway places and watch TV and things outside your scope and outside your world. And I was just drawn to it. It was very interesting and I thought maybe I could do that myself someday. But it seemed very silly to pursue journalism as a 22-year-old and sit there asking questions when you don't know anything. You haven't lived life, and too many people in media have just spent their time kind of critiquing and judging and shooting their mouths off without ever having been responsible for anything. And so I went into the military and I’m very grateful that I did. I got so much out of it.
Law enforcement officers often feel like they're involved in a strict censorship where active duty officers can't say much in terms of opinion. Officers really have to toe the line and be real careful with what they say. As a journalist, have you experienced censorship and are people trying to actively censor your opinions?
Well, anybody who works for anybody is an employee, and that has to be respected to a certain degree. I understand that you can't have everybody or you shouldn't have everybody out there just saying things online and that kind of thing. I feel like Facebook and Twitter present real challenges to law enforcement management. I don't know what the benefit is really to have everybody sounding off like that. Look, censorship is alive and well. We all know that. And people are scared and cancel culture is real and that's very un-American. Now, having said that, let's face it, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, cops, citizens, you know, we weren't writing letters to the editor all the time. You know what I mean? We just weren't, like only certain individuals do that — it's become so easy to express your opinion. So there is censorship and it is wrong. But it's very easy to put your opinion out there more than ever before. And sometimes some of those opinions probably should have been maybe curated or honed a little bit.
Tons of misinformation. We see that all the time with social media, even in the aftermath of law enforcement events — right away, misinformation usually dominates all the feeds. And then we release body camera footage or a public information officer or the law enforcement executive comes out front trying to scale some of that back. Misinformation is a real problem. How do you get around it without curtailing free speech?
You know, it's always been a problem, though. Like I remember watching the news with my father and sometimes being on the inside of a story where he knew something and just shook his head. So I learned very early on that most of the time the information out there is wrong about almost anything. And I learned this firsthand. I was interning for Rudy Giuliani in 1989 when I was in college, and I was on his campaign when he was running for mayor, his first losing campaign for mayor. And I was just amazed at how often the media just had it totally wrong. They did not know what they were talking about. And also just about all of their stories were about who's up, who's down. You know, a poll came out, this endorsement, that endorsement. It was not about policy. It was not about substance. It was all horse race. So they've been wrong and superficial and dumb mainstream media for a very long time.
Speak directly to the police officers who are going to read your book. Tell them what your book is about.
Directly to the police officers. I would say, number one, thank you for your consideration. Thank you for your service. I would say I'm heartbroken by the moment that we're in the middle of right now. Society has completely lost its way. All of the problems are being put on the backs of cops. It's ludicrous. It's been done for cynical political advantage. It’s been around for decades. But the person who put it into overdrive was Barack Obama, somebody I actually voted for in 2008. I admit that.
Where do you see law enforcement headed in, say, the next five years from where we've been?
Where are we going? They know that defund the police is not a catchy slogan. Nobody likes that idea. But their policies are still very much in line with defund. And what happened in Memphis not too long ago has renewed what had been a somewhat moribund kind of movement. They are the instruments of a racist authoritarian state, white supremacy. The fact that they were black cops gave them even more of an opportunity to say, huh, the entire system is racist and must be dismantled. And they are embracing really crazy groups. They're being a bit more sophisticated in how they articulate it. They don't say defund, but if you look at the fine print, it's about defund. I don't know what's going to happen short term. I'm very pessimistic. Long term, I'm somewhat optimistic. But law enforcement, as you know, has been essentially delegitimized in the eyes of a very powerful interest in America. And I don't know what's going to happen next.
What's your advice to some law enforcement executives considering our current climate?
I was asked a similar question recently. And, look, I'm not a law enforcement professional, but I would speak to the political leadership and that they must remain committed to appointing the very best people for these positions. And I have seen the opposite and optics, racial politics, all this stuff about, you know, it would be nice to have a woman, it would be nice to have this. It would be nice to have that. I think that shortchanges everybody. If you focus on the exterior, you miss the important stuff. And I see a lot of people being put into senior roles in law enforcement that don't belong there.
Any reason why you didn't choose to join the force?
I thought about it rather seriously. By the time I was eligible, my father had already been a two-star chief and he was already really making a name for himself. To go into that career I thought would be tough with him as such a star, you know? And I was also really intrigued by the Marine Corps. And once I was in the Marine Corps, I realized my dad had actually joined the police department before he joined the Marine Corps. It was almost too late for me. And so I followed his footsteps into the Marine Corps, but not into the police department. It was basically that I needed to kind of cut my own path.
The safety of the New York City is a big topic lately. We speak to a lot of officers and they'll tell you that things are getting out of control here and many cities across the country. Let’s say Greg Kelly is now the mayor of the city. How does he fix this?
Well, number one, I'd get the right police commissioner and I would talk to my father about that. I think you need a police commissioner with a great deal of administrative managerial experience for a city this size. I think you have to have somebody, possibly a lawyer.
Are you going to run for mayor one day here in NYC?
So, look, I was seriously thinking about it. Here's my why I probably won't. I feel like the mail-in voting — the systems are such that post-2020, they're rigged. I mean, an up or down vote on one day in November with a year and a half lead up mano a mano — Greg Kelly versus Eric Adams, I could beat him. But in this culture where you send out the ballots to everybody. You can't, you can't compete with that. I mean, that's just so it's kind of a shame.
How do you prepare yourself on a daily basis to be resourceful, to actually do what you do every day?
I just spent a lot of time thinking and reading, thinking, thinking
About?
Kind of everything. I mean, it's a lot of thought. It's a lot of thought, and it's a lot of wondering, to be honest.
Do you ever do the wrong thinking? And then you take it back. Do you ever add things up wrong?
Every now and then, I think I missed an opportunity. Or maybe I should have thought more about something. For instance, COVID, I kind of like, went along with the restrictions. I came here every day. I worked through COVID, so I didn't feel the pinch. It wasn't like I was home not working. If I was, I think I would have been really fired up. So I didn't have that. The vaccine. My wife said, you should take it. I took it. I had a horrible reaction to the first one. I mean, really bad. She's has a degree in microbiology. I trusted her and I think that's something I could have possibly gotten more involved in and I could have been more skeptical of it. I asked Fauci, though, a very key question. Early on, Fauci was telling everybody that this was nothing to worry about. And I got him to basically say that on January 28th of 2020, I said, we don't have to worry about this one, right? And he said, no, you really don't. Actually, Greg, it's we have it well in hand. He said that. So yeah, I arguably I missed the boat on COVID. I wish I was a bit more vigilant.
Many officers are taking their lives, and if they're not taking their lives, a lot of them are living unhealthy lives — domestic violence, depression, PTSD, though some are not as drastic as others — but we have seen that many are living unhealthy lifestyles today. And if the next step after that usually will become suicide, what would you tell the cop today facing these challenges?
Well, get help right away, number one. If anyone's obviously suicidal, don't do it, make the call. But I was living a very unhealthy lifestyle not very long ago, six, seven years ago. I was drinking way too much. I was eating terrible, terribly. I was just going from one casual situation to the next. But I started reading the Bible out of the blue. Quite frankly, somebody had given me a Bible 10 years earlier. I'm like, whoa, what's this? I don't need this. When did you become such a church lady? I felt I was insulted that they gave me the Bible. And long story short, I started reading it. And out of curiosity, and it's like just your miracles started happening. And I realized, like, God is real. He's talking to me. And he'd been trying to get my attention for a very long time. And I had been ignoring him, going my own way. So I would say that all your answers are available. God wants to help. And He’s right there. And the most powerful, the ultimate force knows you, knows all of your problems, knows exactly what you're going through, knows what you've been—knows the good stuff you've done and the bad stuff you've done. He still loves you, wants to help. So that's what I would say, get into the Bible.
What would you want your kids to remember you for?
It's my primary concern and wish that they get close to God, that they don't make the mistake that I made the mistakes thinking I could do it on my own. He makes everything easier, everything better, and He's right there. And it's so easy to listen to the world and say, well, that's not cool or that's not fun, I don't want any part of that. I know that part of their lives are going to have to go through that—it's just human nature. Maybe that will make their faith stronger one day. And I just hope I, I hope they love me and I hope they also like me, you know.
