2020 Democratic presidential candidates Mike Bloomberg has enough money to make just about anything go away, even perceived racist remarks he made while giving a speech about New York’s “Stop and Frisk” policing tactic.
Bloomberg’s remarks were nothing less than eyebrow-lifting, prompting TV pundits like Fox News’ Sean Hannity, and even President Trump to call the former mayor a “racist.”
“Ninety-five percent of your murders — murderers and murder victims — fit one M.O. You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops,” Bloomberg said.
“They are male minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York. That’s true in virtually every city,” Bloomberg continued. “And that’s where the real crime is. You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of the people that are getting killed.”
Bloomberg responded to his 2015 remarks, blaming himself for not moving quicker on the matter.
“By the time I left office, I cut it back by 95%, but I should’ve done it faster and sooner. I regret that and I have apologized — and I have taken responsibility for taking too long to understand the impact it had on Black and Latino communities,” Bloomberg said.
“But this issue and my comments about it do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity,” he added.
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“You want to spend the money on a lot of cops in the streets. Put those cops where the crime is, which means in minority neighborhoods,” Bloomberg appears to say in the recording, describing the controversial policy.
“So, [inaudible] unintended consequences is people say, ‘Oh, my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is,” the clip continues.
“And the way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them. [Inaudible] and then they start, they say, [inaudible] ‘Oh, I don’t want to get caught.’ So they don't bring the gun. They still have a gun, but they leave it at home.”
Many politicians support or supported the “Stop and Frisk” initiative, but none of them are heard expressing their views like Bloomberg did, at least there isn’t video or audio of them doing so, yet.
While all the controversy over Bloomberg's remarks were going on, Sen. Bernie Sanders managed to barely beat out Pete Buttigieg in the New Hampshire primary election.
