An audio clip from 2015 of Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg defending the New York City police practice of stop and frisk resurfaced this week and drew sharp criticism.
On Monday, writer Benjamin Dixon posted the recording online. In it, Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, discusses where police should focus their efforts to reduce gun violence. “You want to spend the money on a lot of cops in the streets, put the cops where the crime is, which means in minority neighborhoods,” he can be heard saying.
He then acknowledges that the approach led to many arrests of young people of color for marijuana. “Yes, that is true. Why? Because we put all the cops in minority neighborhoods,” he says on the recording. He also describes his view of how to get guns away from young people, saying police should “throw them up against the walls and frisk them.”
Bloomberg also claimed in the clip that ninety five percent of murders and murder victims are male minorities between the ages of 16 and 25. Critics condemned the remarks, and some disputed the statistic.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg responded in a statement. He said the comments do not reflect his commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity. He said he inherited stop and frisk, that it was overused, and that he cut it back significantly before leaving office. He added that he should have done so faster and sooner, that he regrets it, and that he has apologized and taken responsibility for taking too long to understand its impact on Black and Latino communities.
Bloomberg had already apologized for the policy in November 2019, just before entering the presidential race, while speaking at a Black church in Brooklyn. “I was wrong, and I am sorry,” he told the congregation at the time. Critics have pointed out that the apology came after years of backlash over the policy.
Bloomberg is competing for the Democratic nomination, and the resurfaced audio has put his record on policing back in the spotlight.
