GIULIANI SOFTENS TONE TO EASE TENSIONS IN DORISMOND CASE

From an expression of sympathy to Patrick M. Dorismond's
family to an examination of when the police should draw their guns,
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and his police commissioner have in recent
days shifted on both the policy and public relations fronts to a
softer tone in an effort to ease tensions over the fatal police
shooting of Mr. Dorismond.

These entreaties have not all produced the desired results: 11
Brooklyn clergy members walked out of a meeting arranged by Police
Commissioner Howard Safir yesterday, including the Haitian priest who
officiated at Mr. Dorismond's funeral on Saturday, which ended in a
violent clash with the police.

They said they were disappointed that Mr. Safir would not apologize
directly for the shooting, and left just as Mr. Giuliani was arriving
at One Police Plaza to join the gathering.

Facing the rejection, the mayor reacted in an unusually conciliatory
manner, telling reporters at an impromptu news conference at Police
Headquarters that he was still prepared to meet with the religious
leaders.

In departing from what sometimes seems like a scripted, standard
defense of the police, Mr. Giuliani acknowledged room for change
within the Police Department.

"No institution is perfect," the mayor said. The Police Department "is
a lot better here than in most places in the country," he said.

"That doesn't mean we can't improve," Mr. Giuliani said. "It doesn't
mean we can't get better. It doesn't mean we can't do things better."

The tenor of Mr. Giuliani's remarks shifted subtly, almost
imperceptibly, beginning on Sunday, when the mayor for the first time
publicly said Mr. Dorismond's parents deserved condolences. It was 10
days after Mr. Dorismond was shot to death in a scuffle with
undercover officers who had approached him about buying drugs outside
a bar in Midtown Manhattan.

By midweek, he acknowledged that the law was not entirely clear
regarding his decision to reveal Mr. Dorismond's record, including a
sealed juvenile record that Mr. Giuliani had disclosed earlier, saying
privacy rights did not extend beyond death.

Several of the mayor's close advisers said the change in Mr.
Giuliani's public demeanor, and the steps he and Mr. Safir had taken
to ease tensions, were intentional. The shift followed criticism from
nearly all corners of the city and state, from people concerned that
the mayor's persistent attacks on Mr. Dorismond had gone too far and
merely served to exacerbate racial tension in the city.

In recent days, the mayor has even dropped his repeated references to
the Rev. Al Sharpton and other persistent critics of the Police Department.

A senior City Hall aide said that if the mayor's volume dial had been
set on "10" last week, it dropped to "7" by the end of last weekend
and was still on its way down.

"There is less of a smell of burning cordite in the city, and
everybody is on the way to calming down a bit," said Raymond B.
Harding, who is a close political adviser to the mayor and is the
leader of the Liberal Party.

Mr. Safir has played a central role in the mayor's campaign to cool
tempers. The police commissioner agreed this week to allow clergy
members from the Bronx to attend police roll calls to let the officers
hear their concerns. On Wednesday, Mr. Safir gave an interview on
WLIB, a radio station with a largely black audience whose callers have
often assailed the mayor.

And both Mr. Safir and the mayor this week backed a review of Police
Department policies regarding when it is appropriate for an officer to
pull out a gun.

The detective who shot Mr. Dorismond, Anthony Vasquez, fired his gun
accidentally after he became involved in the scuffle, the police said.

Even before yesterday's evening meeting with clergy members, Mr. Safir
said that he realized tensions between the Haitians, other minority
groups and the Police Department are in part tied up with race. The
comment brought immediate praise by longtime critics of the Police
Department, including the Manhattan borough president, C. Virginia
Fields.

"If you look around the country, the complaints that we hear in New
York City are the same complaints that you hear in Louisville, Los
Angeles and Miami and in lots of other cities," Mr. Safir said. "And
let's face it, we are all honest. This is about race -- something we
all have to face and something we all have to talk to each other about."

The shift in tone by the mayor came following polls this week that
showed support eroding in his campaign for the United States Senate,
in part because of his repeated attacks on Mr. Dorismond.

Mr. Giuliani's aides said yesterday that many of the mayor's advisers
had been calling on him during the last week to tone down his words
and perhaps even give a forthright public address on community police
relations in the city.

But other advisers noted that a direct apology to Mr. Dorismond's
family would be characterized as a capitulation by the mayor to his
critics. So Mr. Giuliani has decided to respond in his own way,
modifying the tone and content of his language, while still defending
his earlier actions and statements, his advisers said.

After yesterday's meeting with the clergy members , which Mr. Giuliani
tried to join just as they were walking out, the mayor indicated his
willingness to try to resolve differences between minority communities
and the police.

"I came to the meeting in good faith," he said.

The religious leaders made it clear that they believed an immediate
apology was needed, but they remained open to future talks.

"The credibility of our negotiations hinges on his acceptance of an
apology to mark a new beginning," said Msgr. Guy Sansaricq of St.
Jerome Church in Flatbush. "We said we would be happy to meet with him
again when the apology comes."