Mike Bloomberg
(Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
(Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
In the audio, he also shared that he believes 95-percent of crimes in New York City are committed by male minorities between the ages of 16 to 25.
Mike Bloomberg is catching fire for newly released audio in which he defends the “stop and frisk” policy.
The Democratic presidential candidate has previously apologized for his involvement in the policing strategy, yet the clip has raised questioning about his current beliefs. In the audio obtained from a speech given at the Aspen Institute in 2015 he states that the policy targeted minority kids in minority neighborhoods. His argument was that these communities were targeted “because that’s where all the crime is.”
In the audio he also stated:
“Ninety-five percent of murders, murderers and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take a description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16-25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city. And that’s where the real crime is. You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of people that are getting killed.”
Later in the clip he said, “So one of the unintended consequences is people say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true.”
When defending his idea of policing which included implementing “stop and frisk” he noted, “And the way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them…And then they start…’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.”
He then argued that this policy was needed to save lives. “If you can stop them from getting murdered, I would argue everything else you do is less important.”
According to the NYCLU “stop and frisk” at its peak in 2011, reportedly made nearly 700,000 stops. It targets young black and Latino men and boys, who may have done nothing wrong before being stopped.
Listen to the leaked audio below.
