Michael Bloomberg’s pathetic pander on ‘stop and frisk’ when he was NYC Mayor will fail

Michael Bloomberg has lost whatever respect I had for him as someone who would fight for what he regarded as right, even when he was wrong. Yes, it’s obnoxious to tell people what to eat and drink, but at least Bloomberg acted out of conviction and stuck to his guns.

But now, apparently desperate to make progress toward winning the Democrats’ presidential nomination, he’s gone and prostituted himself to curry favor with black voters, whom he recognizes are essential to any Democrat winning the Oval Office, Bloomberg has apologized for the “stop and frisk” policing policies that have saved thousands of lives of New Yorkers. Speaking at Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center, he abjectly apologized for focusing on saving lives.

“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 that 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. Now, hindsight is 20/20. But, as crime continued to come down as we reduced stops, and as it continued to come down during the next administration, to its credit, I now see that we could and should have acted sooner and acted faster to cut the stops. I wish we had. I’m sorry that we didn’t. But, I can’t change history. However today, I want you to know that I realize back then I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”

As a New Yorker, I don’t know what the heck he has to apologize for.

Bloomberg came into office promising to continue this trend and he did so. He maintained Giuliani’s policing policies and by the time he was done in 2013, the murder count was down to 644. Incidents of forcible rape were down to 2,575 from the more than 5,000 such attacks in 1993. To call that a failure in any regard is simply insane.

Bloomberg blamed his “preoccupation with driving down crime” for the stop and frisk policy. He then proudly pointed out that he’d seen the error of his ways by his final year in office and such incidents dropped off dramatically. He also claimed that crime continued to drop after those policies were scaled back.

Hoo, boy. Where to even start with all of this? First of all, having a “preoccupation with driving down crime” isn’t something a mayor should be apologizing for. It’s sort of in their job description. If you’re not preoccupied with that you shouldn’t be running for office.

It’s also worth noting the direct impact that Bloomberg’s policies had on violent crime. Murders in New York City reached their peak in 1993 under the leadership of Democratic Mayor David Dinkins. There were a staggering 2,420 homicides that year. Then Rudy Giuliani took over and implemented the strict “broken windows” policies that receive so much criticism from liberals, including stop and frisk. By the time Rudy left office in 2001, the number of murders had been cut to 960 and all other violent crime was down across the board.

Why the heck would a Mayor apologize for continuing a successful policy that saves BLACK and HISPANIC lives, MOSTLY YOUNG MEN?

“Bloomberg has apologized for the “stop and frisk” policing policies...”

If you have to apologize, you are already in trouble. I haven’t lost respect for him since I never had any. Since the first time he ran for Mayor, I knew there was something phony, never trusted him. As far as the black vote is concerned, I believe they are much better informed now with the Prez in office, and are “Off the plantation.” as some politicians like to say.

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