Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The New York Times reports:
Ahead of a potential Democratic presidential run, former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York reversed his longstanding support of the aggressive “stop-and-frisk” policing strategy that he pursued for a decade and that led to the disproportionate stopping of black and Latino people across the city.
“I was wrong,” Mr. Bloomberg declared. “And I am sorry.” The speech, Mr. Bloomberg’s first since he re-emerged as a possible presidential candidate, was a remarkable concession by a 77-year-old billionaire not known for self-doubt: that a pillar of his 12-year mayoralty was a mistake that he now regrets.
Speaking before the congregation at the Christian Cultural Center, a black megachurch in Brooklyn, Mr. Bloomberg delivered his apology in the heart of one of the communities most affected by his policing policies and at a location that nodded to the fact that should he decide to run, African-American voters would be a crucial Democratic constituency that he would need to win over.
“I did a racism when cops & Republicans were an important part of my political base but now that I’m running in a Democratic primary I’d like black votes.”https://t.co/t9jWxrudkG
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 17, 2019
Michael Bloomberg is apologizing for stop-and-frisk saying, “I was wrong.” https://t.co/9iiffU0Y6O
This comes 6 yrs after a judge found policy racial discriminatory & unconstitutional. Back then Bloomberg angrily said, “You’re not going to see any change in tactics overnight.”
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) November 17, 2019
“I got something important wrong. I got something important really wrong,” he said. “I’m sorry.”-Michael Bloomberg apologizing for stop and frisk at the Christian Cultural Center, a prominent black megachurch in Brooklyn. Story TK.
— Mara Gay (@MaraGay) November 17, 2019
Stop-and-frisk under Bloomberg was a failed policy by any conceivable metric. Crime in every major category continued to plummet even as the number of stop-and-frisks was drastically reduced, rendering the logic Bloomberg used to justify the policy during his tenure 100% wrong pic.twitter.com/sMh4FNhfDA
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) November 17, 2019
Under New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk policy, nearly 700,000 people were stopped by police without cause in 2011, 87% of whom were black or Latino, and 88% of whom were innocent.
Now he wants to apologize for it.https://t.co/zKueiP8YgD
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) November 17, 2019