I was not afraid of the press or the militants. It was uncomfortable, but I was not afraid. With respect to the press, I knew I knew more than they knew about city matters. With respect to the militants, I understood it. I mean, everybody believed in those days that they were being screwed, you know, that somebody was getting ahead of them.

Koch contrasts two kinds of pressure he faced in public life: hostile media scrutiny and confrontational street-level activism. He claims he did not fear either, framing the press as less informed than he was about municipal realities and the “militants” as emotionally intelligible products of their time. The remark suggests a politician’s confidence in insider knowledge and a pragmatic empathy for protest: he doesn’t endorse militancy, but he recognizes the underlying grievance—widespread suspicion that the system was rigged and others were “getting ahead.” The quote captures a late-20th-century urban mood of distrust and resentment, and Koch’s self-image as tough, unflappable, and streetwise.