Right after Robert Moses was sworn in as New York's parks commissioner, he announced to the press that he'd fired all five borough park commissioners, their superintendents, secretaries, and senior aides. He didn't tell them first. The speakers debate whether this public humiliation was the real power move.
At 5 PM that same day, Mayor LaGuardia swore Moses into office at City Hall. As soon as his right hand came down from the oath, Moses turned to the assembled reporters and told them he had an announcement to make. The 5 Borough Park commissioners and the 5 Borough Park superintendents, along with the commissioners' personal secretaries and stenographers and assorted deputy commissioners and other top-level park aides, were fired as of now. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, he's— he, he He literally is sworn in and he doesn't even tell the people he's firing that they're fired.
He tells the press, right? And like, which of those is stronger, you know, to tell the person or to tell the press and make it a matter of public record, you know? And you can say it's right or it's wrong, but you actually, it doesn't matter whether it's right or it's wrong. You can't argue with it. It happened. That's what power is.
