Michael Bloomberg Regrets “Stop and Frisk” Now That He's Running for President
Under former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's so-called "stop and frisk" policy, police stopped and searched nearly 700,000 people without cause in 2011 alone. Almost 90 percent of them were black or Latino. Non-white people were nine times more likely to be stopped than white people, but they were no more likely to be arrested. An analysis from the American Civil Liberties Union found that "though young Black and Latino males between the ages of 14 and 24 accounted for only 4.7 percent of the city’s population, they accounted for 41.6 percent of stops in 2011. The number of stops of young Black men exceeded the entire city population of young Black men (168,126 as compared to 158,406). And 90 percent of young Black and Latino men stopped were innocent." Still, Bloomberg stood by the program throughout his time as mayor, and after.
Bloomberg even defended the program after a judge ruled in 2013 that it violated people's constitutional rights. In an outraged op-ed published shortly after that decision, Bloomberg wrote, "Ninety percent of all people killed in our city—and 90 percent of all those who commit the murders and other violent crimes—are black and Hispanic." He added, "When it comes to policing, political correctness is deadly."
Now Bloomberg is positioning himself for a late entry in the Democratic presidential primary. Early in November, he submitted paperwork to get his name on the ballot in Alabama one of the states with early filing deadlines. And now he appears to be trying to walk back his support for stop-and-frisk.
Speaking to the congregation at Christian Cultural Center, a black megachurch in Brooklyn, on Sunday, Bloomberg said, "I was wrong, and I am sorry." Per the New York Times:
"Over time, I’ve come to understand something that I long struggled to admit to myself: I got something important wrong. I got something important really wrong. I didn’t understand back then the full impact that stops were having on the black and Latino communities. I was totally focused on saving lives — but as we know: good intentions aren’t good enough."
This is the first time that Bloomberg has ever spoken of stop-and-frisk in less than defiantly defensive terms. As recently as 2018, he still endorsed it, saying, "I think people, the voters, want low crime. They don’t want kids to kill each other."
Despite Bloomberg's claims, there's no evidence to seriously back up the idea that stop-and-frisk contributed to a decrease in crime.
U.S. in Arms
Raeford Davis, who worked as a cop in South Carolina until 2006, has been an outspoken advocate against the war on drugs and police brutality.
Originally Appeared on GQ
