I would love to see Bloomberg beat Trump badly.
But in a national election that great land between the Hudson River and the Rocky Mountains, with a few exceptions, will never vote for a Jewish candidate.
I grew up there and had to explain almost week why I wouldn't go to church with my friends...and much worse on several occasions.
I wish it wasn't true but until it happens, if ever, I just can't believe a Jewish person can get enough votes to win the Presidency of the United States.
3
You can stop and frisk me every day and every night
if it make the neighborhood safer.
Why anyone should have to fear going out into their
neighborhood, why anyone should be shot in a Drive-By
Shooting is beyond me.
Own up to the violence present in some part of New York City
and protect the innocent civilians, New Yorkers, and if that
takes Stop and Frisk, so be it.
Stop putting your naive ideals
over the lives of your fellow citizens.
3
The African American that supports Bloomberg is as foolish as the dozens of Soy Farmers that have gone bankrupt from Trumps Trade war with China and still support him... Stop and Frisk...
5
It is almost certain Bloomberg saved black lives by instituting stop and frisk.
The notion that it is improper for a mayor to focus crime fighting efforts on high crime populations is so stupid as to be beyond belief, particularly because such focusing saves lives in those afflicted populations.
5
“Stop & Frisk” was, and is a very reasonable way to apprehend violent criminals, hopefully before they murder their next victims.
African Americans benefited more than all others from Stop & Frisk because they are 7 times more likely to be murdered by violent criminals.
All this whining guarantees more young black men will die unnecessarily, in the name of political correctness.
3
Bloomberg displays deeply racist beliefs. Data depends upon the questions you ask and what numbers are deemed important to collect. And who has a right to police whom. Running the entire nation and then the world into the Great Recession was an enormous and violent crime. Having your savings and house stolen by the illegal activities of bankers (overwhelmingly white, wealthy and male -- data) is an often life-threatening experience -- witness the deaths due to lack of access to healthcare, addiction and deaths of despair. so maybe we need to change lenses and stop attributing criminality to people of color and "normalcy" to the criminal depredations of the rich, wealthy, white and male. No bankers went to jail and in fact were indignant when even questioned. I don't remember society throwing any of them up against a wall with absolutely no evidence linking them in particular to any criminal behavior.
3
Bloomberg was all in with this racist policing tactic. This is fact that will never be forgotten by the communities of color in NYC.
The policy reflected not only the bigotry of America and police attitudes towards Black and Brown citizens of NYC but it clearly reflected Bloomberg’s posture towards the Black and Brown communities in NYC
Bloomberg will never recover from this and nothing he will do going forward will have any credibility in these communities
BLM
3
There are a lot of people who think Bloomberg is a racist. His apology tour just isn't going to change their minds. Outlawing large pepsi colas won't help, either.
3
When it was evident that this’ stop and frisk’ strategy was not productive Bloomberg continued to make excuses for the policy .
The overwhelming outcome of this policing ruined the lives of far too people in NYC not just the victims but also the police and tourists.
BLM
3
Sorry, but I'm willing to bet that the worst thing Bloomberg could have ever uttered, publicly or privately, couldn't come close to the demeaning, cruel, racist, xenophobic, uninformed -- need I go on? -- things that come out of Trump's mouth on a daily basis.
And yeah, this is where we are as a society, again thanks to Trump.
278
@Maggiesmom should the police also use your high bar of "I'm willing to bet" standard when stopping and frisking people they are "willing to bet" committed or are about to commit a crime?
6
Bloomberg can defeat Trump. And don't all of you realize that stop and frisk was not a Bloomberg initiative? It predates him, and continues to be used legally in NYC today. Is anyone attacking DiBlasio about this?
2
its not used today, that's a lie
1
So Bloomberg’s not perfect.
The status quo is far worse.
No contest.
4
Bloomberg said what many, many Democrats say in private. Slavery and Jim Crow and patriarchal liberal policies beginning in the 1960s hurt Black culture and devastated Black families. This in turn has left too many young black boys to live in impoverished, fatherless and dysfunctional homes and neighborhoods which has led many to join gangs and live a criminal life. This is why stop and frisk in minority neighborhoods has been practiced. Yes, it is inconvenient and even deeply troubling to Black Americans. But many of them, especially those living in crime-ridden neighborhoods, also support stop and frisk because it protects them and their children.
7
@ehillesum...... No we don't
1
“As a Democratic candidate for president, he makes an excellent Republican donor,” quipped Pennsylvania Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman." Bloomberg's Republican beneficiaries are too numerous to list here. See the following links for specifics. https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/26/bloomberg-republican-endorsement-2020-073807 https://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/michael-bloomberg-donates-to-lindsey-graham-108898 Let's be clear: Bloomberg's short-sighted bipartisan tinkering helped to ensure the current GOP Senate majority, and by extension, the confirmations of SCOTUS Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, as well as the pathetic outcome of the president's impeachment bv trial.
Stop and frisk was always lazy policing. Yes, sometimes it worked, but it always offends innocent people who get stopped.
Let me ask people who defend stop and frisk how much they enjoy traffic stops. Well, stop and fisk is even more invasive and unjustifiable.
I once had a very senior officer in a very big city defend traffic stops as great way to stop crime. He spouted a lot of stats about his city.
I agreed, but asked him why he didn't just search houses randomly. They would find a lot of crime if they did that too and eventually stop some horrible crimes.
But how many people want the police to sort of randomly search their house?
So, it was a dumb, lazy policy. It probably did save some lives, but that is hard to prove. At the same time it absolutely angered many people minorities, especially the family of innocent young men.
Should this prevent Bloomberg from running? Only if you want to see four more years of Trump.
2
The funny-grammar Trump trolls are out in force. It's a sure sign that Bloomberg scares Trump spitless.
3
He'd better be more electable than the other candidates who were said to be "electable."
1
I urge people everywhere to relay these clips and recordings and saturate social media platforms with them.
A man who ran as a Republican and backed Republicans monetarily, bent the rules to serve a third term, and spoke of minorities in such terms CANNOT become the Democratic nominee.
The press needs to do its job and put Bloomberg to task and confront him with the data.
Bloomberg only relented after Stop-and-Frisk was deemed unconstitutional.
Black people cannot be swayed by millions of dollars worth of ads saturating the airwaves.
Make your voices heard as your voices represent the base of the Democratic party.
And white New Yorkers in the comments rushing to dismiss this and defend Bloomberg, calling yourselves liberals won't fool anyone-- the very same ones defending school segregation and all sorts of inequality and disparities and dismissing the voices of voters of colors with their Bloomberg/Buttigieg tickets... you're in for quite a few surprises.
8
I'm disgusted by the comments by so called proud New Yorkers. When you discriminate against the New Yorkers of color you hurt all the citizens living in the city, we all came to this city some way or another, so how could we hurt each other.
I grew up during the Stop and Frisk era, I graduated from the High School and went to an amazing college back in 2013. I went to High School in South Brooklyn in a very diverse area of the city, where different skin colors and cultures basked under the American flag. So many New Yorkers have quoted that, "they only went to neighborhoods with high crimes, it wasn't racial", then tell my why where only the Black and Latino students stopped in the middle of the street when they were getting out the school. I stood there, watched the police just stop my friends and pat them down usually on the wall of the local 7-Eleven. They would never touch me, they would find nothing on my friends of color and find the next student. How can you say that this man wanted to help people of color? The same decade he started stop and frisk public schools in low income neighborhoods were closing down. If he really wanted to help people he could have at replaced the guns with books.
15
Call me naive, but I'd like to believe that Bloomberg was sincere when he apologized for the policy. In any case, we all know that Trump is way too weak of a person to do the same. I had hoped that Bloomberg publicly taking responsibility for the policy and his apology would settle the matter, but here it is in the news, coming back to bite him. And why? Because trump tweeted about it (it goes without saying that Trump himself fully supported the policy at the time).
I'm certainly not dismissing the value of public discourse on issues surrounding Bloomberg's "stop and frisk" policy. They're bound to come up. I just wish the MSM wouldn't allow Trump's tweets to control the narrative as much as it does.
While I disagreed with the policy, I'd be lying if I said I didn't like what Bloomberg did for New York while I lived there. He's not my first choice among the Democratic candidates, but I'll throw my support behind him if he wins the nomination. Then again, I'll gladly throw my support behind whoever wins the nomination. Any of the Democratic candidates would be better than what's currently stinking up the oval office.
4
Well I think there is the narrative, and then I think there is an on the street reality. What happened to that story a few months back when someone shot up 151st St in the Bronx, wounding five including two kids? Interesting reading. The community reaction was that the police fail to fight the problem “which the police largely attribute to rival gangs fighting for control of the area’s dense concentration of public housing complexes”.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/nyregion/bronx-shooting-thanksgiving.html
No follow up article, or would that go against the narrative? A mass shooting in The Bronx. One article, done.
4
Statistics showing steep decreases in crime always are given in terms of the 1950's, as in, "lowest numbers since the 1950's." Earlier decades are never cited. Why? What happened in the 1950's? Oh...
1
Giuliani started the practice of-stop-and-frisk in NYC; and the practice was continued by the next Republican mayor, Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg subsequently changed political parties, first becoming an independent, before finally joining the Democratic Party. Apparently, Bloomberg has since apologized for the practice of stop-and-frisk, which is an indication that his thinking regarding the issue evolved with time.
Bloomberg apologized and that is important. Trump never apologizes for anything as he continues to devolve the nation to his view of the world. It is almost unthinkable that Bloomberg might ultimately be all that saves the world from Trump.
1
Bloomberg does not articulate ideologies as a Democrat because he first was a Republican when Mayor of NYC. He was caught off guard when criticized for Stop and Frisk not realizing it would degrade his presidential campaign. Bloomberg is changing to a Democrat and creating his own brand.
DOES NOT CONVINCE!
6
Lefties are showing their true colors on this message board by defending Bloomberg. All of sudden racism works! It lowers crime. Lefties don't really care about civil rights. It's all an act. Bloomberg is the most dangerous candidate. If he's elected president, Americans can kiss their civil liberties goodbye.
10
he can take my Big Gulp out of my cold, dead hands
3
@Mark
See where you are coming from equating lefties and Bloomberg. Bloomberg was a strict gun control mayor, and has committed financially to fighting the NRA and has the money to do so. Ergo you think lefties support Bloomberg. But Bloomberg is not a leftie, and lefties don’t support him. And what you mean by “civil liberties” is the right to tote around a 50 caliber machine gun, or did I get the wrong impression?
2
@Patrick
Of course he was a strict gun control mayor. A stop and frisk policy isn't compatible with strong gun rights. No mayor in an open carry state would have a stop and frisk program. It's too dangerous for the cops. Lefties support Bloomberg, because they believe in socialism above all. They want wealth redistribution, even if it means diminishing their civil liberties to get it.
Mike Bloomberg is the only candidate running for the Democratic nomination for President who can defeat Mr. Trump in November 2020.
Mr. Biden is doing very poorly in New Hampshire. He did poorly in Iowa. Sad to say, it appears (currently) that Mr. Biden will not be running for President in November.
The only candidate who will be able to face off against Mr. Trump will be Mike Bloomberg. Mr. Trump and the Republican Party have a lot more money to spend on their campaign than any Democrat except Mr. Bloomberg. Essentially, Mr. Bloomberg has absolutely no problems financing his campaign in November.
He can outspend Mr. Trump and the Republican Party and all of their super-pacs, and it will not affect his net wealth after the election is over.
After Mr. Trump's unprecedented interference in the trial of Roger Stone today, it is obviously necessary that he must be defeated in November. What will he do next? Obviously he has not "learned his lesson", as Senator Collins said.
The winners of the NH primary will not be able to defeat Mr. Trump. Their supporters might believe otherwise, but eventually they will realize that the Republicans and the Trump campaign have way more money to spend on the campaign.
The only person who has the ability to defeat Mr. Trump in November is Mike Bloomberg. Considering that Mr. Trump is already destroying the Republic, Democrats and Independents and people who care about the USA had better decide what they _really_ care about.
7
@Odysseus Clinton raised and spent more money than Trump:
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-presidential-campaign-fundraising/
It didn't stop her from losing the election. I have serious doubts about a candidate whose fiscal policies is more or less inline with Republicans, who changed the law to ignore term limits, and who supported policing that courts found to be effectively racial profiling. I just don't see how he's going to get the base out to vote. Democrats rely on younger people and racial minorities, and I don't see how expects to find broad appeal here.
When it comes down to it, I'll vote for him just to get rid of Trump if I have to, but I'd rather have someone who isn't a fiscal conservative on the Democratic ticket.
1
Mike Bloomberg spoke the truth, as politically incorrect as it may be.
If people to whom he was alluding to don't like it clean up your communities. Ever see the breakdown of the prison population by ethnic groups? It's not racism to speak the truth even if it hurts.
"In 2013, by age 18, 30% of black males, 26% of Hispanic males, and 22% of white males have been arrested. By age 23, 49% of black males, 44% of Hispanic males, and 38% of white males have been arrested.[86] According to Attorney Antonio Moore in his Huffington Post article, 'there are more African American men incarcerated in the U.S. than the total prison populations in India, Argentina, Canada, Lebanon, Japan, Germany, Finland, Israel and England combined.'"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
4
@MIKEinNYC
And of course, systemic racism has nothing to do with it? When white kids could smoke majijuana and get away with it, while black kids ended up in jail? How many white kids were stopped and frisked? How many got away with who knows what in their pockets because they weren't the target?
7
@Eric
The disparity in the numbers suggest that we're not talking about mere pot smokers.
1
The policy of “stop and frisk” saved many black lives,
10
Just as the Bush administration said that waterboarding saved lives.
4
I feel sorry that he had to apologize, because I had exactly the same experience: almost 100% of crimes fit one M.O. - this was a conclusion based on statistics and facts.
16
Bloomberg did the right thing. Go to a public school, PLEASE. Watch and see what the liberals did to them. Is it any wonder Charter schools are becoming popular? The inmates rule. Only killing or maiming someone will get you expelled. Students interested in learning can’t. Knocking over desks. Shoving other kids. Throwing objects. If these outcasts are sent to the principal’s office, the teacher gets reprimanded. I know this is true. I lived through it.
18
I guess the takeaway from this is simple enough: Despite knowing where the majority of crimes were being committed and who was committing them, Bloomberg and the NYPD should have done either 1) nothing or 2) foolishly apply stop and frisk to EVERYONE.
I am not defending stop and frisk, but if a house is on fire, I see no point in pouring water on the neighbor's house.
I am voting for Bloomberg.
62
Bloomberg's apology for his "Stop and Frisk" policy was already too little, too late. But now that we have this 2015 racist audio of him I think he's toast.
Bloomberg: "Throw them [Blacks] against the wall."
In this 2015 audio Bloomberg crudely expresses his full-on support for racial profiling. Between 2003 and 2013, over 100,000 stops were made per year, with 685,724 people being stopped at the height of the program in 2011.
With racist talk like this, Bloomberg might get a few racist Republicans (sorry for being redundant) to vote for him, but most Democrats I know will refuse to vote for such a racist. Trump is already calling Bloomberg a racist. As usual it would better being said with Trump looking into the mirror. We do have video of Trump praising Bloomberg for his "Stop and Frisk" policy and saying how much it benefits NYC. Trump was for it before he was against it I guess.
I think Mayor B. was ordering the NYC police to carry out an unconstitutional stop and search.
There goes Bloomberg's money down the drain. It's $300,000,000 and counting.
One Democrat after another is sinking, leaving Trump ever more likely to win in 2020.
This is a nightmare!
8
@NY Times Fan What does $300 million mean to a man who has $60 billion, with more coming in every day?
At least someone will attempt to rid us of Mr. Trump.
2
If you believe statistics, the vast majority of shootings (at least, out here in "flyover land") are due to gang retribution. And those gangs can be black, white, Asian, Latino, or any other group. That means that policing should be aimed at gangs, whatever their cultural affiliation. But it also means that not everyone of that cultural affiliation is a gang member. In fact, most of them ARE NOT. That is the difficult problem and it can only be solved by proper training of officers and by involvement of those cultural groups. But it also means that the officers have to understand the difference between members of those cultural groups and the gang members. A Stop & Frisk program that only relies on cultural affiliation will fail, since those law abiding members of that group will have no respect for the police and will not co-operate with them to actually solve the crimes. And that was the big problem with the program as implemented in NYC.
4
My distaste for stop-and-frisk will not dissuade me from casting an enthusiastic vote for Mike Bloomberg. He understands what needs to be done to de-Trumpify the federal government and restore reason and dignity to our politics. I have no doubt he will be a fantastic president for Americans of all ages, races, and backgrounds.
7
Oh boo hoo . he supported stop and frisk. And he apologized that it was a bad idea. Gee, Mike Bloomberg is human. I think he is the best candidate for president.
4
@Citizen
Not if black people have their say. And they will.
3
@Eric
Well the only person I ever knew who worked on Bloomberg’s Third Term Campaign for Mayor was black. Bloomberg spent a ton of his own money on that campaign, well over $100million, or $130 for every vote he received. I didn’t have to be told what he spent it on. It all just clicked. No, I think he will do just fine with black people at the voting booth. Just a hunch. He knows how to make money work, if you know what I’m saying.
He must repudiate this, in face to face dialogues with professional black person who can devine a self. WE do need the person who can stand up to the bully. Who is by character, is stronger, a force of good will, and shows true warmth to the diversity of Americans in this there UNITED STATES. if he can do this publically, I can believe he has changed.
No candidate is perfect, Trump has said horrible things and the Republicans defend him. Democrats take the high road and lose. Get behind Bloomberg or we lose big.
5
After 30 years, I left NY for Portland OR in 2000 during Ghouliani's reign and have not been harassed by a cop since. (It was a regular occurrence in NY). Sorry but I will not be voting for anyone who had anything to do with the racial profiling I experienced while living in the big apple.
5
Dear NYT:
Wow. Game over. Mayor Bloomberg is lying through his teeth. His claim that the policy began under Rudy Giuliani, and he was simply slow to shut it down, is a flat out lie.
In fact, it was Bloomberg who significantly expanded the policy -- both in scope and its racist application.
Under Bloomberg, police were ordered to stop young black and brown men in high crime areas, and "throw them against the wall."
Bloomberg knew or should have known at the time that this program was racist due to its overbreadth, and its use of explicit racial criteria, too often absent a showing of the "particularized" suspicion required under our Constitution.
Until he decided to run for president, Bloomberg defended stop and frisk.
How could he not know it was a racist violation of civil rights. Consider Bloomberg's own description of the program criteria:
“Ninety-five percent of your murders — murderers and murder victims — fit one M.O.,” Mr. Bloomberg said in the recording. “You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city.”
“We put all the cops in minority neighborhoods. Yes. That’s true. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is.”
To claim he had made a policy mistake, falsely blaming his predecessor, is a disqualifying moral failure.
9
Convincing some trump supporters to switch horses may be challenging.
“He doesn’t brainwash me.”- trump supporter at his N.H. rally.
“What you see and what you hear is not what is happening.” - trump
You gotta laugh.
1
Whoops. He gone.
1
Bloomberg’s “stop and frisk” is better than Trump’s “shoot them in the back.”
4
As he should have....
1
Where is the lie?
2
Wow, Bloomberg's social media team are out in full force in this comments section.
5
Bloomberg's statistics are a lot more racist than his policy.
The NYT should have fact checked them. Here is the truth:
""Ninety-five percent of murders, murderers and murder victims" are male minorities between 16 to 25, Bloomberg says.
This is actually not true -- not in New York City, and not nationwide. In 2015, reportedly the same year as this recording of Bloomberg, black men committed 36% of murders, and were 52% of murder victims, according to FBI data cited by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service. White men were 30% of murderers and 43% of murder victims. According to FBI statistics from 2015, just under 16% of male murder victims were Latino or Hispanic and less than 10% of offenders were Latino or Hispanic."
6
Bloomberg’s statements on Stop and Frisk OR Trump’s appreciation for neo-Nazis, banning Muslims and people of color from entering the US, and his jailing of children in cages?
I’ve already decided who I’d vote for, and his name isn’t Donald.
3
If trump wants to start a twitter war on racism, Mr. Bloomberg's campaign need only replay trump pointing to "my African American! over there!", or the one where an old white guy sucker punched a young black guy, or the young black girl being physically harassed - all taking place at one of his hate rallies.
I doubt Bloomberg himself would stoop to such tactics but the material is out there - plenty of it.
1
All those millions spent for a fancy ad campaign using his 15 mins with Obama hoping it would propel him forward with black voters. It did, until this.
2
The democrats, mightily aided by the nytimes, are going to PC themselves into another loss in presidential politics.
5
Great. African Americans will get Trump re elected. Good work
6
Why is Bloomberg taking all the heat on tactics--Klobuchar isn't so hot either. This from the Hill in January
On Wednesday, the Racial Justice Network, Minneapolis NAACP, Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar and Communities United Against Police Brutality all asked Klobuchar to suspend her White House bid. Edwards's father has also said he believes Burrell may have been wrongfully convicted.
Only Mike can slay this dragon.
He is our Frodo and he can save middle earth.
Well it’s true that most violent crimes, proportionately, are committed by young black males. It’s tragic because we’ve normalized it. And we’ve normalized it in black communities where it affects whites the least. And so it continues. To me, that is the moral tragedy, not an academic argument about the limits of the 4th amendment.
2
In the age of Trump voters are unscrupulously looking for the candidate to beat him, and right now, even with these comments, Bloomberg ticks all the boxes. 1) Suburban working class voters like him, 2) He is taking the minority vote from Biden, 3) Trump is most afraid of him.
Go Mike, Go!
2
The fact of the matter when he was mayor crime was an issue. Today the crime rate is way down, but then? No. It was a real problem. Bloomberg is not a racist and stop and frisk back then was something everyone was happy with. He has nothing to apologize for.
5
Wow, Bloomberg’s trolls appear to be out in force tonight, writing pro-B responses and recommending those by others so they crowd out these comments and dominate the conversation. Perhaps he is paying double overtime.
Having said that, I think this tape shows that Bloomberg is a racist, but few aren’t, when you get down to it, least of all Trump. I could still vote for him in November, albeit not with much enthusiasm.
5
I am sickened by the concentration on just one part of Bloomberg's statement.
Why on earth don't you hear Bloomberg called out for his blatant ageism. He's clearly anti-youth, as he calls out young people as criminals.
Why on earth don't you hear Bloomberg called out for his blatant sexism. He's clearly anti-male, as he calls out men as criminals.
Why is everybody focusing only on the third part of his statement, which deals with minorities?
Of course there is a defense for his statements.
They are true.
I wish they weren't.
But if you're going to support Donald Trump by demanding Political Correctness from those who wish to oppose him, why don't you just state clearly that you'd rather have Trump as President than anybody who is not Woke to your standards?
Dan Kravitz
3
Thank you to all the white people in the comments chiming in with "he's less racist than Trump" and "mass incarceration is good, actually" -- extremely helpful.
7
@Reader In Wash, DC 80% of the people stopped were black or latino. 85% of the people stopped were innocent. It's indefensible.
3
@Mac
It's a criminal vs non criminal thing. Nothing to do with race.
1
Just let us all know when any of you discover whether anything Bloomberg said at the Aspen Institute in 2015 about "stop and frisk" was/is not true.
1
That violent crime disproportionately occurs in lower income neighborhoods is a fact. You only need to go to the local courthouse in a major city to see this in real time. Is it because they're often people of color? You only think so if you're a stooge or a bigot. These are crimes of poverty. And it's another fact that people of color are disproportionately poor in America. Is this because of their race? You only think so if you're a stooge or a bigot. It's from widespread systemic racism.
While I'm sure many in these neighborhoods are fine w stop and frisk because they are the victims of most of these gun crimes, S & F violates the Constitution. Do we suspend its due process and search & seizure rules there as an emergency measure in the same way it's bypassed for terrorism purposes?
No.
2
Certainly, Bloomberg went beyond reason when he suggested that police encountering minorities should “throw them up against the wall and frisk them."
However, what if it happens to be factually true that much if not most of the crimes committed in NYC occur in predominately minority neighborhoods? If so, that must be reported accurately, and not swept under the rug as NYC's prevailing leftist, apologist political class and news media tends to promote out of hand every time. If we can't agree on the facts, if we can't promote straight talking, then there won't be any progress in the white vs. non-white divide in the Big Apple, which now tends to only produce fakers like de Blasio, AOC and Al Sharpton.
1
Bloomberg: American Oligarch.
3
I think it would have been helpful to readers if the Times fact-checked the stats cited by Mr. Bloomberg along with an explanation for how those stats are created and interpreted.
1
I hate him as much as I hate Trump. How about we ban all New Yorkers from running for president? Bernie included.
1
For those interested in recent statistics:
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_planning/year-end-2019-enforcement-report.pdf
1
“One of the unintended consequences is people say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana. They’re all minorities,’” Bloomberg said. “Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why do you do it? Because that’s where all the crime is.”
I’m not sure a Republican candidate could survive that.
No wonder he requested they bury the videotape.
2
The only way trump can win is to cheat, lie and try to smear people.
1
Buttigieg = too inexperienced, small city mayor and soldier. Moral. So right for the future.
Klobochar = constantly blaming, especially her alcoholic father. Mean-spirited and throws things at staff. Smartish, articulate, efficient. Questionable background as prosecutor.
Sanders = maybe too impractical. Not much executive experience outside government. Visionary idealist. Fun. Most trustworthy and charismatic. Nonpartisan.
Warren = A little too wonky and feisty. Caring, wise, experienced, practical. Despises immorality, inequality, and corruption.
Bloomberg = Serious. Stops mid-sentence to say God bless you to a sneezer, nobody's fool, is everything Trump wishes he were, philanthropist, tough but caring, enormous executive experience in business and government, internationally known and respected billionaire paying his own way, gets things done, and truly believes in equality and justice and supports military and education with sincerity. Able to admit mistakes. Tough on crime.
Non-partisan. Biden = Too doddering, not aging well, easy target. Enormous experience. Such a good, sweet man, so moral and kind. Extraordinary patriot. Now that I've written this, I think I know which one this nonpartisan independent thinks will be the most likely to beat the world's only dotard.
Likethumb_up
Replyreply
Linklink
Reportflag
4
Bloomberg, the stop and frisk and "we more billionaires living in the city" mayor. Qualities in a president we don't need. Bernie's got my vote. Bloomberg bought his way into the primaries. " Money can't buy me love" nor can it buy my vote. you foolish voters out there: we don't need another oligarch in the White House"
2
I would like to remind everyone that the November election is for President, not for God.
You want to trash a Democrat?
OK, so you're a Trump enabler.
Possibly even a Trump supporter masquerading as a Democrat.
And the allegedly progressive podcaster promoting this? Once again, follow the clickbaited ratings and the money.
3
Is this the beginning of the Time's efforts to destroy another viable Democrat?
3
If people are willing to overlook this and still vote for Bloomberg, would they also still be willing to give Pete a chance even thought there was racial disparity with marijuana arrests in South Bend?
1
And #45 groped young women. Vote blue.
3
Not only did he get behind stop and frisk, but he stereotyped people from small Midwestern towns as not understanding trans rights. He did this in Britain. He was slamming Americans to Brits. He seems to believe that he belongs to an “intelligent” class of people. I will absolutely NEVER vote for Michael Bloomberg. Here’s the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfzmXyqxW30
2
Bloomberg is the consumatte arrogant elitist. He's always been an arrogant elitist now he's a rich arrogant elitist.
It's amusing to see him actually grovelling for votes by reversing himself on his stop and frisk policy.
Being mayor of NYC and rich to boot doesn't necessarily give you national recognition. Everyone connected to Wall Street knows of Bloomberg and that's the scope of his notoriety. Average Joe in mid America doesn't know him any more than he knows Putin.
Mike's ads tout his resources. Isn't that an in your face arrogant statement to make? Does that connect with mid America? I think not.
2
There is no way in this current political climate, going back say 10 years, that what Bloomberg said on this recording is acceptable. If Trump had said this, the media would be on the 24/7 Trump is a racist marathon.
But it wasnt Trump. It was the Democrats best chance to beat Trump, so they are attempting to give him a pass.
Bloomberg regurgitated the most gross stereotype of African Americans -that theyre all criminals, and the only way to deal with crime is go into the black neighborhoods.
This should disqualify Bloomberg today
3
You mean Target and Terrorize?
2
Instead, how about we lock kids up in cages? trump wanted to execute 5 innocent young men. Let's start that narrative. I swear the 2020's are going down hill already, Bloomberg is the best candidate to beat trump.
3
Stop and frisk worked. Admit it.
1
“Ninety-five percent of your murders — murderers and murder victims — fit one M.O.,” Mr. Bloomberg said in the recording. “You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city.”
Why is Trump held to a higher standard in the NYT than the former Mayor? Where is the fact check on Bloomberg’s racist claim?
2
@Daniel Kamen: Or sexist, or ageist, for that matter? Yes, indeed, where is the fact check on Bloomberg’s ageist, sexist, racist claim?
1
Why must effective police action be subordinate to political correctness? I will vote for whoever is the Democratic nominee, but things like this make me like Mr. Bloomberg more, not less. I believe that a large "silent majority" of decent Americans who want to see the Trump nightmare come to an end feel the same way. The problem, as usual, is the vociferous PC minority.
4
Why? Because police forces are subject to the constitution. Period.
2
Maybe there should be a program for billionaires, "stop and audit", looking in detail for financial shenanigans and revenue derived in violation of federal and state regulations.
5
I wish the people defending Bloomberg as basically just being "honest' about "data" would actually study stop and frisk.Young black and brown men were stopped over and over in the neighborhoods for just being out. There was a LONG Federal trial in which a judge who heard a lot of evidence determined they were stopped without cause and excuses made up ( looked suspicious). Bloomberg attacked the judge and ignored her findings ( sound familar) These men were stopped in far higher numbers than even Guiliani did. Crime went down BUT it went down further AFTER Stop and Frisk was stopped. It did nothing but terrorize communities of color.
7
He may have been right in his basic point; that is that the more people that the police search the higher likelihood of finding guns. The problem is that it's unconstitutional.
3
but...but...TRUMP!
2
If this is all they have on Bloomberg then Trump is in trouble. It was/is a bad policy and an over reaction to crime but I believe the intentions were good. Bloomberg learned from this and it's my belief if he becomes the candidate he can beat Trump.
Bloomberg gives the Republicans in my family someone to vote for.
3
The thing to recognize here is that increased drug enforcement leads to increased murder.
What happens after a drug gang leader is taken down?
1. Suspected snitches are targeted for murder.
2. Gang wars break out over the newly available turf.
Bloomberg is supposed to be a smart guy. But if he cannot recognize this pattern, he's not so smart.
He should know that drug use rates are fairly equal across races.
Drug enforcement, however, is not equal. Drug enforcement we foist on PoC. You will always see more murders in the places where drug raids are the most common, because there is always a period of lethal gang violence AFTER every drug raid.
Bloomberg is thinking backwards. As the Brits would say, he's got the wrong end of the stick.
3
To each their own opinions but I remember what NYC was after decades of Democrat rule and near bankruptcy.
It was dangerous to walk around Times Square or take the subway after dark. All Americans who remember those days know that it took strong action to turn a failed city around and back to the proud one it was when Bloomberg left.
37
@Maggie Sad but true. America's solution to many problems is to dump it on someone else. New York is one of America's biggest and most successful campaigns of gentrification, with all that it means.
1
When Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he is reported to have answered, “Because that’s the where the money is.”
This quaint, brilliant and painfully honest answer seems amusing today with the passage of time. But it could just as well be Mike Bloomberg’s response to the question, “Why do you stop and frisk in high crime neighborhoods?”
"Because that’s where the guns are." Equally honest, in my opinion, and not indefensible.
2
@Capt. Obvious
Frankly, when the police spend all their time in minority neighborhoods, it is no surprise their statistics say those are the neighborhoods with the most crimes. The majority of people stopped during stop-and-frisk were innocent. Furthermore, a lot more people were arrested for drugs than for guns.
There are of course other factors that come into play into which neighborhoods have more crime - poverty is a big one - but there is good reason to question the data, and even more reason to question stop-and-frisk in general.
“The City’s highest officials have turned a blind eye to the evidence that officers are conducting stops in a racially discriminatory manner. In their zeal to defend a policy that they believe to be effective, they have willfully ignored overwhelming proof that the policy of singling out “the right people” is racially discriminatory and therefore violates the United States Constitution.” - Judge Shira Scheindlin
2
Many many thanks for the reminder of how economic/social elites view the Constitutional rights of the rest of us.
May Trump be the final "businessman" non-lawyer President. At least in law school you're generally required to study the Constitution.
1
I have never been a fan of Bloomberg for many reasons,
BUT if Bloomberg has the better chance of defeating Trump, I urge all who resent some of his policies, keep your eyes on defeating Trump
4
Good or bad, enough people who lived in NYC during that time are pleased with Bloomberg's efforts that I'm not about to hold it against Bloomberg. Other readers are suggesting that this story is being promoted by Sanders' army of Bros. It could be so inasmuch as in some polls, Bloomberg has now climbed to #3.
4
Bloomberg is the best Democrat candidate that money can buy. He will say and spend whatever it takes to beat Trump. The hypocrisy of the establishment Democrats and their media allies is stunning. I don't think it will go unnoticed by Independents and the left wing of the party. How very sad.
Bloomberg has my vote, and I’m from Fl, were it counts.
2
The proportion of stopping and frisking should be relative to the proportion of criminal activity by any given race, not in proportion to race’s percentage of the population in general. This has nothing to do with racism, this is about math.
3
Whether you think stop and frisk was good for stopping minorities from becoming crime victims or bad for being overly aggressive, every candidate has good and bad in their history. Every candidate. You can sort their relative records according to your personal values and priorities. But, there is simply no Democrat candidate who has more experience and a proven record of accomplishments relevant to the job of President than Bloomberg. It's just not even close. Democrat voters need to decide if they are voting for their personal Utopian ideals or for voting for a better America.
2
Bloomberg 2020! He made a policy to fight crime. Maybe it was wrong and he admits that. He can beat Trump. He’s got my vote and several others I know in Texas that are rock solid Republicans.
2
The media, including the far-right and far-left progressive media who are bent on attacking Michael Bloomberg, are also guilty of making broad stereotypical assumptions about black voters.
As an African American man and I believe 'Stop and Frisk' was an injustice. I'll add it to the already long list of wrongs perpetrated against African Americans.
So after implementing the most racist immigration policy in our nation's history, I'm supposed to believe that Donald Trump is taking up our cause when he calls Michael Bloomberg "racist?"
Or that I'm going to support Bernie Sanders despite my concerns about his electability?
First, stop pandering to us as if we're unable to make intelligent, nuanced choices about who we want as president. I say let us get all the incriminating evidence against Michael Bloomberg out in the open, so we can move forward.
3
@Mark ...Playing to nuance is a non-starter. See things as they are.
@Jonathan The only non-starter in my view is four more years of Donald Trump. Period.
2
I would like to hear from the tens of thousands of young men who were thrown up against the fence by the NYC Police for no reason and how that affected them then and now.
If you think it had no effect on them, you are very lucky to have lived a life to never experience any kind of similar abuse for no reason other than being born in a certain color skin and living in a poor neighborhood.
3
Mayor Bloomberg is correct about stop and frisk and he shouldn’t apologize. It’s not racist to speak the truth.
3
This comments section is scary. Literally almost all comments are supporting something the right wing Supreme Court said was unconstitutional. These comments seem to be encouraging racial profiling and ignoring all white collar crime and drug use. Pretty shocking takes by a usually well informed group.
4
Flip the script. Imagine if NYPD officers specifically targeted white men in business suits, pushing Bloomberg and his ilk up against Park Avenue walls, searching them from head-to-toe, briefcases and all, without provocation. That stop-and-frisk policy never would have made it past the initial pitch meeting.
I don’t think we should replace a blatantly racist alleged billionaire with an even wealthier billionaire who dramatically expanded the blatantly racist stop-and-frisk policy as mayor and breathlessly supported it as recently as last year.
If the general election comes down to a battle of the billionaires, I will vote for Bloomberg. Any sentient being is a step up from Trump.
If a suspect in a crime is 6'5" you don't spend time looking for someone 5'8".
3
As regrettable as this may be, it is mild by comparison to the scurrilous, unconstitutional, unhinged acts committed by Trump et al.
1
How should we get the guns off the streets in violent neighborhoods? Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit, St. Louis, etc. What should we do that is both effective but that doesn't offend anyone? I'm willing to listen. But if it's just criticism with no better solution, I'm not.
4
He isn't needed in the race. We have Buttigeig and Klobuchar as strong moderates. The race needs less contestants not more unless the goal is to split the moderate vote, make Sanders the candidate with his majority of a minority, and the reelect Trump. Because that is how the math works. Bloomberg equals Sanders equals Trump.
Trump lies. We know that.
Bloomberg said some true things people don't want to hear. Apparently that's no good either.
So what exactly is allowable? True things everyone wants to hear?
How can anyone solve any problem with that approach?
3
In Floyd v. City of New York, NYC's "stop and frisk" law was declared unconstituional by US District Court Judgel Shira Sheindlin in 2013. Bloomberg has recently acknowledged his support of it was a mistake, though it might be noted that de Blasio, once himself a Democratic presidential hopeful, was never in favor of it. Bloomberg will surely be condemned both for his initial support and later regret. We can rely on Trump to wonder about "activist judges," and his lawyer Barr to follow and file suit.
Democrats have GOT to stop being such purists. Put all the other issues aside for now. There’s only one thing that matters: beating Trump. Then we can work on more just policies. I think Bloomberg’s got what it takes.
4
Now that he wants to be president he has regrets and reservations. Convenient.
Disqualifyingly convenient.
9
@DP As a black voter of middle age, I'm definitely all-in for Bloomberg. He can beat trump. In fact, he will trounce t* and dunk him into the trash heap of history.
1
This piece is history . Bloomberg can definitely kick Donald out of the WH. Then we can rebuild.
12
just as Biden and Clinton were definitely going kick Trump out?
1
Was Benjamin Dixon, a progressive activist, who smeared this all over the web a Bernie Bro? I Hear that they play pretty dirty.
So to quote Bernie Sanders, “ please work with me to make the nominee someone with unrivaled honesty, truthfulness, and decency”.
That’s Michael Bloomberg.
10
Let's see now: A guy who supported stop-and-frisk as part of gun control, or the guy who boasts he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue? Hmm. Decisions, decisions...
15
Mike Bloomberg - Stacey Abrams. There's no time to lose.
7
@Richard Schumacher
Stacey Abrams will never be Bloombeg's running mate. It's beneath her.
1
Which NYC Mayor is more disliked , de Blasio or Bloomberg and why? Compare and Contrast for homework essay.
4
I hope everyone reading Bloomberg's remarks about telling police officers to pick out black and Latino young people and throw them against the wall and search them are a confession that he was telling these officers to blatantly violate the Constitution of the United States. That remark is even worse than Trump's when he told the Suffolk County police to bump arrestees' heads against patrol cars when putting them inside the vehicles.
6
Even in his apology Bloomberg said that it didn't work statistically. He did not seem concerned with the violation of civil rights of the people he was having stopped. He is tone deaf when it comes to the problems he creates for others. He was the same way after Sandy. A child's body wasa recovered from Staten Island (which received extensive flooding) and he stated at a news conference that he was not cancelling the NY Marathon the next week and said, "sorry we've got to have an economy". We don't need him in the White House. We've had a steady stream of Neo-Liberals there already.
5
@Scott Since Bloomberg can beat trump, all's forgiven.
@Scott And the people of NYC told Bloomberg he was crazy to try to still hold the marathon and he changed his mind and admitted his mistake. That quality is what makes him a great leader, he will admit when he’s wrong.
Is the Democratic field so weak that they resort to pulling up an old recording to discredit Bloomberg campaign..
Bernie, Pete, Elizabeth & Joe can’t legitimately compete with Michael or Trump so they are trying to get the African American community not to support Michael, who the African American community know can beat Trump in a general election...
3
@RLM You're correct; however, we (I mean me and others who think like I do) know for sure that Bloomberg can beat trump. That's it and that's all that matters right now. Black voters don't vote against their interests the way rightwing voters consistently do.
1
I don't believe that Mike Bloomberg is a racist. I was under the impression that Rudy Giuliani started the stop and frisk program/policy. Is he a racist? In any case, it seems to have worked as violent crime dropped significantly in NYC. I'm sorry to say this, but profiling, racial or otherwise, works to get guns off the streets. It's very sad, but it's just a fact of life. If one were to review the NYC crime stats neighborhood by neighborhood or precinct by precinct it's clear that in certain areas of NYC there is more street crime than in other areas. The murder rate in the 32 Pct is higher than that in the 61 Pct. By the way, I worked as a law enforcement officer in NYC, more specifically in Harlem, Bed/Stuy, South Bronx and Westside Manhattan for many years so I know firsthand. This was way before gentrification. The Dems have to take a tip from the POTUS and stop trying to be so politically correct. Don't apologize for making NYC safe.
7
Not to mention the indiscriminate arrests during the 2004 NY RNC convention that saw 2,000 citizens literally netted in to orange, plastic fences and tossed in to a smelly, hot sanitation garage for being in the wrong place at the wrong time or exercising their right to protest peacefully.
These were Democrats protesting, legally and REPUBLICAN Bloomberg ordering NYPD to round them up and toss them in to inhumane and ad hoc incarceration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/02/politics/campaign/tactics-by-police-mute-the-protesters-and-their-messages.html
2
@Billy : He was a Republican, but he got better and wised up.
another valid reason to vote for Bloomberg; and most minority communities ravaged by gun violence will understand what he's trying to convey
7
Everyone knows Bloomberg stands behind this policy and his mea culpa is straight up politics.
I'm sorry but now is not the time to think about stop & frisk, we are descending into some scary version of American allegiance and/or indifference to pseudo-fascism. We're in un-chartered territory and black folks are the first to recognize it name it and fear what's in store.
This comes down to who do you dislike more, Mike Bloomberg or Donald Trump and I think the answer for black voters is almost unanimous.
5
Actually, as politically incorrect as Stop 'n Frisk may have been it was very effective in reducing crime.
I'm a regular white guy. I was stopped and frisked, and wanded, and my briefcase searched and swabbed, at least three times and I didn't mind a bit.
If that what it took to get New York's astronomical crime rate down so be it.
Mike, no apology necessary.
11
IDK how many of you live here in NYC, but coming from a Hispanic minority, I very much liked S&F. I see and hear of crime every day and do wish they brought it back. deblasio has done such a horrible job with the city.
8
Mike is still the best candidate for 2020 for president. That is the bottom line.
5
By now we are used to Trump and his candor. Bloomberg is not saying anything worse. This might actually get him elected. The more vicious and insensitivity you are, the more likely you will get elected. This is the New America.
2
I wonder what Mr. Bloomberg's reaction would be to applying the same logic that he uses to justify the stop and frisk policy to tax cheats.
It is well known that most of the tax cheating (in terms of total dollars withheld illegally from the treasury) occurs with the top income levels.
What if we had an IRS that pursued the wealthy in the same way that stop and frisk pursued minority youth in high-crime neighborhoods? If 80% of the top 15% earners were audited every year, imagine the impact on the deficit.
Crime is crime. If severe scrutiny of the most likely offenders is a good policy, what is good sauce for the goose is good sauce for the gander.
6
Well said Tom W. Dems are going to lose this one if Bloomberg isn’t the nominee.
3
Just started reading Diane Ravitch's new book on our education system. She is not a fan of Bloomberg's stance on education and charter schools.
2
He was wrong. So what? Every person has made plenty of errors. We don't need perfection, we need someone is capable of learning. Bloomberg is, Trump is not.
3
So far Trump has my vote. However, Bloomberg and Klobuchar are, IMO good choices. I have the feeling that if Jesus Himself was running the insane purity squads of the left would find something wrong with him, too.
3
I want Trump to lead an Oval Office conversation between the "fine people on both sides" from Charlottesville. Their attendance is well documented. Choose your fine people (from both sides) and present them to the world.
@kmt Good idea, but trump is not a good negotiator, just ask his creditors.
Surefire Democratic Party strategy, 2020: "I targeted high crime areas and lowered the crime rate. I'm deeply sorry!"
7
When the Barnard student was murdered in Morningside Park a few weeks back many people assumed the suspects would match Bloomberg's description of "95% of murder suspects" as "male, minorities, 16 to 25." That's what bias can do. Those people were wrong. It turns out the suspects were a 13-year old and two 14-year olds, "male, minorities."
O' Henry twist.
5
Bloomberg, the best Candidate only Money could support...
1
It seems to me we need something to control criminal behavior. Since this program has stopped and the police rained in random crime has gone up with assaults and shooting. On SI we have seen bank break in, car vandalism, hate crimes. I think Mike was a good mayor till he rigged his third term. He would be a good president and could beat Trump
3
We liked stop and frisk. We don't break laws---stop and frisk us anytime.
11
@Travelers
You very most likely are outside the profile of those who were targeted by stop and frisk.
Maybe we should sic the IRS on you in a "stop and audit" program.
1
Kären M. Hess; Christine Hess Orthmann (2010), Criminal Investigation (9th ed.), p. 100 - Regarding Terry v. Ohio: "The suspicion must be individualized. Suspecting people because they fit into a broad category, such as being in a particular location, being of a particular race or ethnicity, or fitting a profile, are insufficient for reasonable suspicion."
Michael Bloomberg: “You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16 to 25."
I won't pretend law and order and civil rights are easy ethical topics. However, stop and frisk was and is, as done in New York, unconstitutional.
In the world outside the Constitution, we could have the discussion about which is worse: Having cops with a license to kill, patting you down because of your skin color, or having a higher chance of getting mugged, raped or shot by a random resident.
After the last few presidents, I would like to have one that pays homage to the Constitution.
1
Fine. I don't care. When are the Democrats going to wake up and stop looking for an absolutely perfect human being? Focus on beating Trump. Nothing Michael Bloomberg has said or done in the past is even close to Trump's abuses.
6
The other Democratic candidates can use Stop and Frisk against Bloomberg, but in the general election, it can't hurt him since Trump also supported it. I can certainly understand minorities being unhappy about it, but given the choice between Bloomberg and Trump, Trump is the racist, not Bloomberg.
3
Bloomberg is the strongest candidate. Period. Sanders can’t win as a self-described socialist. Biden’s shelf life has passed. Warren is over. Pete is a kid. Klobuchar would make an excellent VP. How about some articles highlighting Bloomberg’s fights on gun control and climate change? He can’t be bullied, outspent or phased by Trump. He’s not perfect, but in case the NYT hasn’t noticed, we’re way past seeking perfection. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.
6
This is not an issue anyone who has even thought of voting or Trump would care about.
4
If Bloomberg really wants to defeat Trump, why doesn’t he run as a Republican? That’s what he did in nyc.
1
@Tom Gilroy Because the majority of Trump voters are not Republicans. They're Trump cultists, and they won't vote for a Republican.
1
Glad stop and frisk is over. We must all remember that Bloomberg is not advocating to bring it back, acknowledged that he was wrong and has apologized
Meanwhile down at the border, Donald Trump is still caging babies, separating families and sending young people back to the country they were born for minor infractions. Let’s focus big picture
I will take Mike any day over the vindictive,
Corrupt, grifting Trump crime family.
3
Trump has a lot of nerve calling anyone a racist because of, ya know, his whole life:
- not renting apartments to people of color and designating their files with a "C" (resulting in a fine for breaking federal law)
- calling for the execution of the Central Park Five, who turned out not to have committed that heinous crime
- denigrating African-Americans in numerous speeches
- singling out "my African-American friend" at a campaign rally
- hiring Ben Carson, who lacks the most fundamental knowledge for his job, as Secretary of HUD
- describing communities of color and majority Black African nations in the most condescending terms
- making his "fine people on both sides" comment in Charlottesville;
- whatever else I'm leaving out because my brain can't hold the full litany of his atrocities at one time and still perform the remainder of its necessary functions.
Bloomberg's record on race IS problematic -- which is not wasted on Bloomberg himself, as he's reconsidered his policies as Mayor (decide for yourself how sincere he is). BUT... Trump shows NO acknowledgement or concern about how problematic his own record on race is. Between the two of them, I'll take the guy with the self-awareness.
5
Bloomberg didn't spend decades cultivating his image to be the perfect Presidential candidate, unlike some others who were preening, posturing, positioning, and pandering, always with their finger to the political wind.
Perhaps if he'd planned to run for President sooner, he'd have paid more attention to politically correct speaking and less to getting guns away from dangerous people.
74
@Joe
Actually, had he stayed the Republican his is/was, his racist Stop 'n Frisk would of fit right in.
Why didn't Bloomy try and primary Trump directly instead of changing his registration and buying his way into the Dem. primary?! If he thinks he could beat DT, he should have done it as a moderate Republican, possibly pulling DINO's over to his cause.
6
@Dobbys sock That's a good point - if his goal was to defeat Trump, splitting the Republican vote would have arguably been more effective than joining the Democratic primary. My guess is that he's more interested in making sure he doesn't have any new taxes on his $62 billion dollars...
6
@viridian Bloomberg pays his taxes and then some.
2
The comments her are more telling than the article itself. They generally confirm, in a diverse chorus of approval, that while the stop and frisk policy is now an easy target, and the audio tape is allowing calls to cancel Bloomberg for alleged racism, that the policy was not motivated by racism, and that it worked to reduce crime, making, especially, black victims of crime safer. Bloomberg might well be the only chance to defeat Trump, and Trumpism, would of course be a salvation both to those who hate profiling and those who are suspicious of the influence of great wealth on politics. The comments get it right. The viral audio tape is being used to suggest that Bloomberg is a racist and the policy was bigoted, ineffective, and disqualifying. Not so!
6
The whole purity test garbage is giving us impossible candidates, representing impossible expectations. A hyper-woke, sorry for being privileged, police are evil type of candidate will not win over the moderates that decide all elections, that are the majority of America.
There is nuance and middle grounds and inconvenient facts that both sides like to hide from. Telling the truth about his position and speaking about facts is a good thing.
6
If my 15 year old was carrying a gun or had friends who carried or who knew people who carried I would want him stopped and frisked. The fact that the policy worked well is unimportant to the loud and professionally aggrieved and some unfortunate vulnerable minds on the Left. Only racist in the sense that it was congruent with reality, predominantly black youth carrying weapons; once upon a time people could put two plus two together.
10
Most of the people enraged by this in NYC are living in neighborhoods that they never would’ve if it weren’t for those policies. Oh the irony.
10
This country is in a race war but we like to pretend we are not. The first thing a minority suspect would say after being hauled into the precinct is he/she is the target of racial profiling. The first thing a movie with majority white casts being judged on is if it’s inclusive enough. Asian, Indian, Hispanic are all given stereotypical roles while blacks get outsized and the best roles because they are the most diverse.
We cannot talk about it because every time we say “why can’t we just talk about it” things get worse.
What Bloomberg did was just what everyone was thinking but cannot say. It makes no sense to question Hispanic grandmas, Asian shop keepers when we know which gang(s) was responsible. He probably shouldn’t have said it either and just let it be an open secret.
5
Curious, most of the comments are coming from people who don't even live in NYC and surely didn't live here during the 1970's and 80's when if you walked the streets at night you were taking your life in your own hands.
11
The liberals who seek perfection are going to end up with four more years of Trump and Trump like Republicans if they don’t get it together. Bloomberg can get the job done and does not have pie in the sky ideas that will never get implemented. Get real.
108
@Tom W completely Agee, perfection complexly escaped in Iowa!
5
Ideally there’s some middle ground between perfection and an uninspiring billionaire who supported a racist policy in his recent past.
6
@Tom W
Maybe because we still have better choices, actual Dems to choose from?
A moderate Republican is just another Less Evil choice.
We're hoping to do better than a oligarch billionaire who just now figured out America has an inequality problem.
Maybe a candidate without a plethora of sexual harassment and job discrimination lawsuits. Maybe a candidate that doesn't offshore his billions. Maybe a candidate that didn't spend $12 million (on one candidate, Toomey) just 4yrs ago keeping the House and Senate out of Dem. control.
We don't need a Bush fan boy or someone who cheered on the Iraq War.
We still have better choices.
5
The brutal truth which no in the Democratic Party wants to hear is that Bloomberg is about the only candidate who could beat Trump. The race is decided in southern states who will not vote for a woman, a gay person or a person of color. Face the truth.
6
@GB Or a "socialist".
@GB But they will vote for a Jewish New Yorker, right?
Hate to say it but.... it sounds to me like the top commenters who are siding with Bloomberg are from his camp. Paid employees. Bought and sold. Am I being too cynical? Seems as though we'll be seeing a lot of this in the coming months.
1
@Sammy Knip No one paid me to see the writing on the wall. I'm black and I'm convinced that Bloomberg beats trump in the general. It's just common sense and not even debatable.
Well, I am not an employee. I saw him speak in Detroit and I was impressed. He’s not perfect but I think he can beat Trump.
1
Well, I am not an employee. I saw him speak in Detroit and I was impressed. He’s not perfect but I think he can beat Trump.
The statistics that Bloomberg quotes are likely accurate yet he will be pilloried by many liberals for repeating them. We live in a country where you can’t say things that are factual but don’t comport with the Left’s worldview. People in crime-ridden communities complain about crime but don’t like the extra police presence and activities in their neighborhoods.
3
@Aaron James Browne There are many more nuances to enumerate that refutes your worldview of what black people who 'live in crime-ridden communities' believe and know to be true. However, Bloomberg gets it and that's good enough for me. I'm with Mike. I live in one of those '...communities' in Philadelphia of which you speak. I walk in love with confidence and don't feel like victim of my surroundings. I have raised two (twins) very astute young black male adults who walking in love and confidence. People like to stereotype us into a ghetto box, one in which we don't fit and frankly we really don't care what people who use these stereotypes think. We know what's true and how those 'communities' have come about in America.
Having said all that, Bloomberg is THE one who can beat trump and claw back our democracy from the demagogue who come from supposedly desirable communities that are orchestrating the collapse of our democracy because white folks dared to vote for a black president.
1
The United State's Republic is in dire straits.
Fact: Donald Trump is crushing our Democracy and rule of law are every hour he is is awake,
Fact: Multibillions will be spent trying to re-elect Trump,
Fact: Fundraising requires little work for them. One donor, Adelson, just gave a $100 million donation to Trump and the Republican Party (think of the schoolchildren that would help),
Fact: Matching this contribution would mean the Democratic candidate would need to raise half a million $20 donations in ONE DAY!
Fact: Many large corporations want an Oligarchy and Evangelicals want a Theocracy and they will pay whatever it costs. With their ruthlessness and money, they have a very good chance of winning this election.
Fact: It appears we have only one multibillionaire willing to spend what's necessary to take Trump down. If you don't like his policies or history, wait until we're in charge of the WH and Congress. It is insane to shun a multibillionaire who's already fighting Trump with hundreds of millions of his dollars.
9
Well, well. Bloomberg's own words come back to haunt him. Nevertheless, what choice do we have given the current field of Dems. I am not even sure Bloomberg is a real Democrat given his support for that snake Pat Toomey in the last election. That said, I am supporting Bloomberg as the best shot against the tyrant trump. Lord help us.
4
Recently, the NYT interviewed Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. primarily regarding the “beer summit”.
Even though he said he has not fully endorsed anybody, given his personal affiliation with Michael Bloomberg, he really respects him.
While recognizing the mistake Bloomberg made on his support of stop and frisk, Dr. Gates goes onto say that Bloomberg’s full-throated commitment to gun control and the ACA elevates minority populations far more than any other candidate has effectively stood behind.
This interview happened before Trump’s disastrous budget was released; this budget would revoke meaningful health care access to millions. So now the stakes are even higher when it comes to ACA and continuing to ACTUALLY protect those with pre-existing conditions.
Bloomberg can beat Trump. And, he’s likable (enough).
5
And he was supposed to be the Democrats latest savior, riding in on his white pony.
2
What are the rights of citizens and victims in high crime areas? What’s the non stop and frisk plan to reduce crime levels in high crime areas, where the plan has proven historic results?
1
@Craig A few things would help a lot, unwinding the historic redlining of black communities and real investment in infrastructure and public schools. That would go a long way. I'm convinced that Bloomberg is the president that would accomplish.
The issue is not whether he hurt someone's feelings. The issue is whether what he said is true. And all available data shows that what he said is true.
Are we that sensitive that when someone makes a truthful, candid, factual comment, he's accused of racism?
3
@Allan H.
"Are we that sensitive that when someone makes a truthful, candid, factual comment, he's accused of racism?"
Depends.
If you tell me about a road rage incident and say that the enraged person was a black guy, I'll assume you're a racist.
If you call the police and say the same thing, I would not assume you're a racist.
If you've been the victim of several road rage incidents, but the only one you called the police about was the one involving the black guy, I'll assume you're a racist.
I don't like to be paranoid, but it's very hard to believe that any support I see here for Bloomberg isn't astroturfed. After he launched his campaign by employing virtually-unpaid prison labor, is spending unprecedented money on propaganda (I don't mean to use the term negatively--it's just what it is), and is using paid employees to canvass at activist rallies, couldn't a person be forgiven for doubting that any of these nice little essays in the comments are genuine? Apologies to you if yours is; it's not of your doing that I doubt it.
4
@J You are being paranoid. We aren’t paid. Bloomberg saved NYC after 9/11 and we need him again to end this Trump nightmare.
I think that it is time for people to stop picking apart every single Democratic candidate that is running against Trump. They are all flawed to some degree, but the alternative is another 4 years of the blatant corruption that will continue to go unchecked by all 3 branches of government if Trump's overreach continues. Be it Bloomberg, Klobuchar, Sanders, etc., it is time Democrats start rallying around a candidate if there is any hope of preventing the mistakes of 2016. While Bloomberg has admittedly made policy mistakes, I'd take his leadership over Trump's any day. I say this as a Latina, native New Yorker.
4
@CTteachermom
Great post.
1
@CTteachermom I agree. Also, due to the reality that Bloomberg is a billionaire willing to spend his own money on defeating the t* regimen, I do wholeheartedly believe he is the candidate that WILL BEAT TRUMP.
I heard Bloomberg say he regretted the fact that his policy was taken to the extreme. That tells me that those policies must have built in safeguards. The ends don't always justify the means - but being able to say you were wrong or your policy was flawed is far better than what we have in the presidency today. I would vote for Bloomberg.
3
So what? He apologized for it. People make mistakes. Bloomberg is now our only hope to fight back against trump and his boss, Putin. It is time for the Democrats to get behind Bloomberg. Sanders and socialism is not what majority of Americans want. That’s a fact.
1
I am 150% supporting Michael Bloomberg for President. Experience:He has done an amazing job running a political entity that has a population larger and more diverse than all but 8 states, he made NYC safer, balanced the budget, improved schools, got the city and its economy through the 9/11 horror, cleaned graffiti, increased parks, balanced the budget! diversified NYC with tech, rebuilt infrastructure (e.g. his huge hidden billion $ rebuild of NYCs water system which was collapsing. Business:He grew up in a middle class suburb of Boston, went to Harvard Business School and built one of the largest most successful, complex tech companies (before tech was cool) in the world. Philanthropy: He puts his money (literally billions of $ of donations where his mouth is, and where my values are education, health, gun control - issues I care about. He got elected to mayor and is running for President without making crazy spending promises nor insulting minorities, women, muslims and dividing the country etc. He is calm, logical, and presidential. Finally besides all this he can WIN! He has the resources and people to blow the Republicans out of the water in '20 and he does not have to rely on the financial contributions of the special interest groups on the right or left that have been twisting our government policies away from the common sense policies that the majority of Americans who are in the middle want. These attacks only show he has become a real player! Go Mike!
6
There has never been, and will never be a perfect candidate. The Republicans know this and practice this - to an unfortunate extreme, in the case of their collective decision to overlook the lifelong record of behavior by the temporary occupant of the White House.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning media are working too hard finding fault with their candidates. Folks, Bloomberg will not implement Stop and Frisk as President. What was done is done - Bloomberg would be a massive improvement if elected, as well as any Democrat in the field (including Bernie!). Let’s stop destroying our candidates.
If Bloomberg were the Democratic nominee I’m not sure this would hurt him in the election, sad to say it might even help.
1
Bloomberg, let’s not forget ran as a Republican and won the Mayor’s office. He did so mostly to gain Giuliani’s Republican endorsement because Giuliani was wildly popular after 9/11 (America’s mayor). He aligned himself with Giuliani In order to win. Now he is running as a Democrat, which is where his values and policies are probably mostly aligned but nevertheless he chose to run as a Republican because it was convenient to do so. His apology regarding the racist comments about stop and frisk is disingenuous. He apologized because he wants the minority vote. Some people have commented here that the policy was effective. That’s debatable and we would need serious data to back that up. Even if it was effective (and that’s far from established) we can’t have a policy where a specific group is racially profiled and the police without suspicion stop and frisk minorities without merit, and not violate basic constitutional rights and values our country was founded on.
1
Data tends not to be politically correct. The results speak for themselves. NYC is by far the safest big city in America according to the FBI. That’s a concept that would’ve been laughed at in the 70s or 80s.
3
For those defending stop and frisk, the bare statistics speak louder than anything reasonable about it. It was consistently a greater than 80% failure. Sorry, if you sacrifice your liberty for safety, as the saying goes, you should get neither. Crime does not go down because of a police state. It goes down because of employment and well paying jobs. People don't choose to become criminals, they resort to criminal activity because there is no other way to survive and survival is what all of us aim for. Please don't defend stop and frisk. This action was deplorable and it is the one reason I think the "liberal" people of NYC are hypocrites for electing Mike for more than a decade and would be the only reason why I would not vote for him period.
@TheniD Of course people choose to become criminals. That's why most people "survive" while not "resorting" to such selfish and uncivilized behavior. Stop making excuses. This is a big country with tons of opportunity. We all choose our paths and live with the consequences.
1
I really start to worry when people are starting on the bandwagon to support Bloomberg. Yes, he's not as sleazy as Trump and yes, he has governing experience. But, there was a lot of inequity during his administration. I'm not sure that I see him as the savior that others do.
@Louise Sullivan Bloomberg isn’t sleazy just because he’s rich. He earned his money and gives plenty away to level inequities and to enrich all lives with culture.
Thus article doesn't define stop and frisk. Did the police need probable cause to stop someone? If not, how was stop and frisk even constitutional?
I remember when a lack of police presence in minority neighborhoods was considered racist, because law-abiding residents were left to fend for themselves.
A large police presence in high-crime neighborhoods makes sense. Random harassment of minorities does not.
2
That's because it works. Fact. No amount of feelings, idealism or delusion will change that.
3
Bloomberg's defense of the practice makes perfect sense if you want to protect innocents, but alas, not permissible to utter.
He was my candidate, then I read this and he wasn't my candidate. Then I read the comments and he was sort of my candidate again, or maybe he wasn't.
Then I thought of some of the decisions I've made and would never repeat, and Bloomberg is back as my candidate. I believe he is the only one who can win.
I really, really want Democrats to win.
92
I’m so, so highly skeptical that the best candidate to turn out the broad coalition (young people, people of color, women, etc) that Democrats need to win is a milquetoast New York billionaire who strongly supported a racist policy in the recent past. So much of the base we need to carry the nominee has valid reasons to be deeply mistrustful of Bloomberg; there aren’t enough moderates left in the country to make up for that.
3
@HotGumption Bloomberg isn't my first choice among the Democratic candidates, but I'm not going to write him off. I didn't agree with all of his decisions, especially his "stop and frisk" policy, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't like what he did for New York while I lived there.
Unlike Trump, Bloomberg isn't a pathological liar. He's capable of listening to advisors who know more than him. He can acknowledge and learn from mistakes or poor judgment, something Trump would never do. He's put his money behind important causes like environmental protections and common sense gun control legislation.
If we're looking for a candidate without an ego or who hasn't made mistakes, we won't find him or her among any presidential candidates. But there's a world of difference between a big ego and someone with deep psychological issues. None of the Democratic candidates are perfect, but compared to Trump, they're all more preferable. We simply cannot risk another 4 years of trump's chaos, especially as it chips away at our national security. Same goes for his Republican lackeys in Congress, who protect and enable trump at all costs to the country. It won't be safe for any of us.
2
@AA
Then good luck with four more years of Trump.
Young people don't vote their talk, blacks stayed home in numbers that may have helped Hillary lose and women like a guy who is smart, accomplished and doesn't promise free stuff he cannot deliver.
2
I'm becoming very depressed about this election. We had a wealth of talented candidates--and still do. But apparently we might end up with the guy that buys the election. Ok, he's better than trump and I'll vote for him if I have to, but I think his rise simply demonstrates much of what is wrong with the US and why Trump came to power in the first place.
3
@Ellen Bloombeg rose to the occasion because the Democratic candidates won’t beat Trump. He’s our only shot and will make a great President. Trump is scared.
The citizens of minority communities benefited the most from these tougher policing tactics. Granted other factors contributed to the lowering of the crime rate, but it is certainly logical that young men inclined towards crime were motivated to leave their guns at home.
12
Any evidence to support that claim? Or is it based on what you have read while not living in a community under siege by a police force illegally, indiscriminately threatening, physically accosting and traumatizing children?
1
@Daniel Kamen. Children? You make gang members sound like innocent babies. Their victims are the ones threatened and traumatized.
Would love to have some Bloomberg enforement down here in Florida!
I wasn't a New York resident under Bloomberg so I can't speak to the impact of his stop and frisk policy. But I AM a resident of a community desperately grappling with violent urban crime - St. Louis - and I can see how a policy like that might make sense in a certain light.
When the problem becomes so acute and so many innocent people are being affected, it doesn't seem unreasonable for a caring, proactive mayor to want to do SOMETHING, anything, to stop the chaos. Bloomberg's longtime companion, Diana Taylor, basically echoed this in a recent WaPo interview, explaining his rationale.
Was stop and frisk a perfect policy? Certainly not. But did it emanate from a place of genuine concern in response to a genuine problem? YES, I believe it did.
21
Bloomberg’s statement as made during a June 28, 2013, broadcast with WOR’s John Gambling.
"One newspaper and one news service, they just keep saying, ‘Oh it’s a disproportionate percentage of a particular ethnic group’ being targeted by the city’s stop-and-frisk policies. That may be, but it’s not a disproportionate percentage of those who witnesses and victims describe as committing the murder. In that case, incidentally, I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little."
Well there you have it according to Bloomberg police target whites too much and minorities too little.
5
No you DON’T have it. You’re purposely reading out of the statement the issue of who the witnesses say the perpetrators are.
CompStat doesn’t lie. Put a heat map of murders on NYC (and many other cities) and look where the data happens.
1
@KR: look at crime statistics in NYC.
1
The reason there are more Stop and Frisk in certain neighborhoods in NYC has nothing to do with race. It is a result of the high number of crimes committed in that NYPD Precinct. 685,724 people were stopped and frisked in 2011 and last year about 15,000.
As a New Yorker do you feel the City is safer and in a better place?
26
I’ve lived in NYC since 1980 and although I’m sure there have been some mistakes,
Stop and frisk was a absolute necessity given the gun related drug crime in the City at that time. Parts of New York where heading towards problems like S Chicago.
People of all race wanted the violence stopped. Stop and frisk was one of the tools that made New York City today one of the safest cities with one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
Mr Bloomberg has nothing to apologize for. He should be thanked.
49
@Steven New Yorker here. I approve this message. Bloomberg 2020.
1
“You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16 to 25."
Blunt defense? If a Republican had made this outrageous comment, worthy of Robert C. Byrd, we all know the adjective that would have been used, and it is not blunt.
12
@JRS
I don’t see the outrageousness you speak off. Facts are facts. It’s not 70 year old people who commit crimes. It’s mostly young men, and in a city full of minorities, they are mostly minorities.
We can be fair without checking out our brains.
2
@JRS: Unfortunately, it's still an apt description of the electronic flyers my college's campus security (many of whom are minority) sends out whenever a criminal offense has been committed close to, or on, the campus where I work. Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often, but it's always the same - young black male(s). It's never a female, elderly woman (of any race) on those flyers... Racist, or realistic? It's a good thing Bloomberg apologized for the unintended consequences of Stop & Frisk - something Trump would never do - but he did not defend it because he's a racist. I believe him that he defended it out of concern for the safety of the law-abiding members of the crime-ridden communities.
1
Trump can't bully. That's Bloomberg's job.
Billionaires (well at least is provably legit) fighting over the right to be the bully.
Nice descent for American politics.
3
If a Republican candidate made those racist statements attributed to Michael Bloomberg they'd be immediately canceled. But the Democratic party doesn't want to lose any of the billionaires' money.
11
@james Desperate times require desperate measure. What Democrats want is an end to Trump’s corruption and the erosion of the law and our rights. Bloomberg is starting to be seen as the man who could end the decline and maybe even send the Don to jail. Thus, I am sure the Trump fans will remind us of Stop and Frisk every time they can.
And don’t forget, Bloomberg was a Republican when he was elected and for much of the time he was mayor. I have thrown away candidate purity tests for this election. If Bloomberg and his money can buy us out of Trump, he has my vote. It is worth it just to see Trump squirm.
President Trump said today he’d rather run against former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg than Sanders.
Trump is, of course, a liar of no small repute.
15
@Ken Whistling in the graveyard.
How do you write this article and not mention that Don Trump took out a full-page ad in The Times calling for the death penalty to be reinstituted as a punishment for the Central Park Five AFTER they had been exonerated!
28
the most important thing is to defeat trump.
anything else can wait.
31
Of course it's reasonable to use police resources more where there are more crimes. The problem with bragging about pushing policies like this is that it does nothing but worsen the conditions which have led to these communities having disproportionate crime in the first place.
I am white man and just because I have never been arrested and do not have any semblance of a criminal record doesn't mean I never walked or drove around with something that may have changed that. A cop would have never bothered stopping and frisking me. So while I have the opportunity to grow up and realize that I was stupid and not have a criminal record follow me around...others who conducted themselves exactly as I did do not have the same chance because they grew up in the wrong neighborhood. When extrapolated to the level that these policies have been it is an obvious injustice.
Indeed Mr. Bloomberg is granted the right to state his opinion and to be a no-nonsense tough talker, but bragging about an overtly racist policing tactic is a pretty bad look.
7
Is anything that Bloomberg said untrue?
Or is it all just politically incorrect?
50
@Lefthalfbach
Your question has validity.
1
Well said! Good insight
1
What if Stop and Frisk were implemented on Wall St. and the surrounding financial area?
Does anybody actually believe there are no drugs or weapons in all those attache cases or backpacks?
How long before the phone would ring at City Hall with threats of withholding donations to the part in power at the next election, if the police did not cease and desist?
11
@KF2
But people weren't and aren't being killed on Wall Street and the surrounding area every day.
35
@KF2: Not to minimize the illegality of drug and weapons possession in Manhattan, but how much gang violence, drug dealing and shooting was going on in Wall Street vs., let’s say, the Bronx, before Giuliani’s and Bloomberg’s times?
2
@KF2
How many drive by shooting and bodega holdups do you have in Wall Street? If there is crime there, it’s of a far more sophisticated type, that no cop could discover by frisking anyone.
1
Did the crime rate drop because of this policy? That's the only metric that counts. And by all accounts it did.
48
By no account did it. Crime rate was dropping already and continued to drop after stop and frisk was largely abolished. Correlation is not causation.
1
Yes. And it dropped after it was discontinued. So what’s your point. All the commenters citing data that it was successful have ignored that crime dropped in NYC also when it wasn’t employed so you don’t know the real reason for the drop.
The police weren't fighting crime, they were meeting quotas and in so doing, sullied the records of thousands of minority youths for marijuana possession, not for guns. Their futures were irrevocably affected, something that Bloomberg just viewed as collateral damage.
13
Young minority kids shouldn’t be getting high everyday no kids should, and the fact of the matter I have never seen anyone stopped for smoking a joint.
1
Done correctly (which was not the case in some NYC precincts) Stop, Question and Frisk increases safety in a community as guns come off the street. For me, it is not the policy; it is the execution. Since this was executed incorrectly by the NYPD, everybody lost.
10
First, whatever Trump says has to be taken with a grain of salt ... if even that. The one true thing about Trump: He uses the truth of facts as a convenient commodity in self-justification and self-service. For example for consistency, what about his wall relative to his righteous criticism of Mr. Bloomberg of 5 years ago. When it comes to truth, Trump’s a cipher. Second, we must stop looking for a new president who has never made a mistake. This is absurd. Besides that, look at what we must replace! Mr. Bloomberg is a very capable and generous man. Plus that, he’s an extremely talented executive which we are in dire need of ... again, look at what we have and suffer by. 2020 is not 2015. Bloomberg made an mistake early on. So much the better he realizes this and, presumably, govern according by this realization.
7
How DARE he speak the truth in this era of politics correctness. How DARE he. Who would want someone with such courage sense and integrity - in the white house, of all places!
27
Well, this sounds like a deal breaker unless Bloomberg holds a long press conference and takes all questions about “throwing them up against the wall” as if all minorities are guilty by birth. I was just warming up to Bloomberg as a possible alternative if Biden doesn’t make it to South Carolina. I love all that money that Bloomberg could to bury Trump and the entire Republican Senate. But now I have to hope against hope that Biden—who is the guy we really need in the White House—will get stronger. And that if he doesn’t, here’s hoping that Klobuchar picks up the pieces.
1
@Mike
I would have loved it if Biden ran in 2016 - that was his time. Too late now.
I hope Klobuchar can survive long enough as a viable candidate to get to Super Tuesday, when I think she will do well, especially after Biden falters. But if Klobuchar isn't the nominee , then I hope Bloomberg is, as he is the best positioned moderate Dem. Gotta stop with the purity tests and keep eye on what matters: putting an end to trump's lawlessness.
2
@Mike
Biden will not be president.
1
@Grainy Blue
My hopes are on Bloomberg/Klobuchar ticket
1
Many voters of color in New York City always supported Bloomberg because he actually made sincere and effective efforts to reduce crime in communities of color in NYC. Bloomberg was elected to 3 terms of mayor and was substantially supported by communities of color as by most people in NYC. Mike remains the most qualified and accomplished candidate for president.
34
Stats to support? Bloomberg was barely re-elected for a third term.
2
Oh come on. We already knew he defended his policy. Did we really need to uncover a tape? He has reversed course, even if convenient for him to do so now. Please let's stop with the purity tests.
15
Overly aggressive NYPD policies may have disproportionately affected minorities during Bloomberg's three terms. However, as a white guy who was swept up in a random dragnet of bogus arrests I can attest that I wasn't alone in the holding pen at central booking for 16 hours. It was packed with pot smokers, outdoor beer drinkers, turnstile jumpers and drivers whose licenses had been "suspended" for not paying parking tickets but had never been informed of it. Of all colors and stripes.
I acknowledge my privilege that it was the only time in my life that I was ever arrested for anything. But it was for nothing. It was under Bloomberg. I had no recourse. No phone call to lawyer or loved one's on why I had disappeared.
Yes. I hold a grudge against Bloomberg for bragging about and encouraging his overly aggressive cops.
He is still as tone deaf as any billionaire to the struggles of everyday people.
As mayor he spent almost every weekend in Bermuda.
Tens of thousands of small businesses were decimated during his tenure. He did nothing to help.
Stop and frisk. Hurricane Sandy. Mega-gentrification. Over turning the two term limit.
The entire face of the city changed from one of quirky opportunity and fun to corporate dominance and stress.
I don't like Mike.
15
S&F was a terrible policy. As painful as it was, we need to learn from it and do much better in the future. I believe Bloomberg when says he will. The most important challenge facing our country is Trump. Bloomberg is the only viable candidate that has a chance of defeating him. We will not have the opportunity to learn from S&F and do better if Trump is re-elected.
7
Bloomberg is the only candidate who can beat Trump. Period. It's that simple. Only Bloomberg can beat Trump.
We know he prioritizes gun safety, making healthcare affordable, preserving abortion rights, the climate, increasing taxes on the rich, making more jobs and supports virtually every mainstream liberal position. Not only that, as president he could be hugely effective in actually getting things done, given his track record of hyper-competence, pragmatism and executive success.
If Democratic voters reject Bloomberg as their candidate - again, the ONLY one who can beat Trump - on the basis of his stop-and-frisk policy, or that he's made a ton of money, or that he's white, shame on them.
I would say they would then deserve to lose, but the world doesn't deserve another four years of Donald Trump.
13
What no one on the left has ever said:
"I wish there were a billionaire who'd step in and save us from Trump."
6
Interesting, it actually helped to combat the crime surge in NYC. But he can’t even use it in the campaign :)
It’s hard to be an electable democrat these days.
12
While not a perfect policy, violent crime dropped precipitously because of Bloomberg in this city and people of color as much as anyone else were safer because of it. That is a hard fact. It’s easy for White liberals to criticize stop and frisk BUT I know many people of color who live in East New York or Morrisania who told me that as the streets of their crime prone neighborhoods were safer because of it, it was worth exchanging the cumbersome ability of the police asking to frisk someone in exchange for safer streets for their families.
263
I am an UWS liberal born and raised and cannot fault him for this, however bluntly it may have been stated.
22
@ManhattanWilliam
Chicago's murder rate due to gang shootings could benefit tremendously from this policy. The people living there on the victim end of the story would really appreciate it.
6
@ManhattanWilliam wrote: "violent crime dropped precipitously because of Bloomberg"
This is false. Crime started going down in the 90s and has continued almost everywhere in the US. See the data at this link for NY. The precipitous decline is striking: http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm
Crime was already way down by the time Bloomberg entered office. That, plus the fact that this trend is national, indicates that stop-and-frisk accomplished NOTHING except to frustrate and annoy non-whites.
15
We need to be able to have these conversations, conversations about difficult topics, if we are going to solve difficult problems. So, he was blunt. But was he wrong about where the violence and murders are? How can we make a fair society if we don't tackle the problems in the worst neighborhoods?
Was it a good program? Hindsight is easy. In Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, Talking To Strangers, he discusses the social science behind tactics like stop and frisk and there is no easy answer that they are racist. If you think it is obvious, you are wrong.
202
@idd
Yes. He institutionalized racism. He did not support the rule of law fairly or equally in proportion to justice. Instead he attacked communities like a war with certain ones benefiting at the others expense.
He helped pave what Trump now uses to wedge us against each other in a fight for our survival.
If he had applied the law evenly and across the board against whites you could argue it but he didn’t. And that is wrong and dangerous.
29
@idd : There was a logic to increasing police presence in higher crime neighborhoods. But stop and frisk treated everyone in those neighborhoods as a potential criminal. That’s a violation of due process. It can’t be that being a minority walking through a high crime neighborhood is probable cause for being stopped and frisked. Even a traffic stop requires (in theory) evidence beyond the crime rate in the neighborhood one is driving in. One must be speeding, or driving with an expired registration, or a broken tail light. Most of those responsible for America’s worst mass shootings are white males who were probably never stopped and frisked. So Bloomberg has some explaining to do.
4
It’s tough to blame Bloomberg for the over zealous practices of his Chief of Police.
Bloomberg listened to his Police, the Communities victimized and the data before making the right decision to push back on the practice.
Then he stood face to face with those communities and apologized.
That’s the kind of leader we need
7
There are dozens of videos on YouTube with Trump making the most heinous statements, or outright lying. Hillary Clinton's campaign put together a very effective video of children listening to Trump make these statements. Democrats would be wise to utilize these videos in their campaign. Videos are effective because they can never be mistaken for "fake news."
8
@Tom The technology now exists to alter videos in a way that is not detectable to viewers, changing the nature of what was originally recorded. The purpose of this is to create "fake news" for the unsuspecting.
@Bill
Videos are the best source we have to remind Americans what Trump has said. Democrats need to make better use of them. This ad by the Clinton campaign in 2016 was brilliant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrX3Ql31URA
1
Bloomberg is the only Dem candidate polling above 1% that I will not vote for under any circumstance. I'll settle for Biden, Pete, etc., but if the Democratic party is stupid enough to pick Bloomberg out of the current selection of nominees, then they deserve to lose to Trump again.
Nominate Bloomberg and you will alienate more than just the left wing of the party. You will alienate voters who believe that 77 is too old to be president. You will alienate the voters of color who rightfully resent his broken windows policing tactics. You will alienate the growing number of people who are distrustful of billionaires and want to get money out of politics. You will alienate potentially anti-Trump conservatives who hear his anti-gun rhetoric and fear that he will take their firearms- so much for reaching across the aisle.
Bloomberg is a sure loss in 2020, but Democrats still have the chance to win by nominating someone else. I don't care how rich Bloomberg is, he can't buy the presidency no matter how much money he spends.
12
If Trump is re-elected, he'd be 77 before his 2nd term is up. Biden and Bernie are already past it, and Warren would get there while in office if she wins. But you will vote for any of them but not Bloomberg? So you're ok with re-electing Trump by staying home if Bloomberg is the nominee? Think those voters of color you speak of prefer Trump to Bloomberg? Trump did support stop-and-frisk (and still does) and expressed his desire to take it nationwide as president.
Besides, there is no such thing as an "anti-Trump conservative anymore." The impeachment debacle proved it beyond any doubt.
7
Greg. Any democrat but Bloomberg is a loser. Pick any of them. Any of them. How is this for comparison to your comment. If Sanders gets the nomination I will not vote for him. Check mate.
@Grainy Blue If there are no anti-Trump conservatives anymore (a statement I don't necessarily disagree with), then why would the Democrats benefit from alienating their core voter base in an attempt to woo disgruntled Republicans? That math does not add up.
He might be able to strip away some republicans from voting for trump with this comment and probably many moderate to conservative Democrats would agree with his statement. Given how racist America is, this is not an entirely radical statement to make.
2
If Michael R. Bloomberg purchase the Democratic Presidential nomination, Donald Trump will serve another four years.
Anyone connected and supported to the draconian, ruthless, and Unconstitutional stop and frisk or the War on Drugs ( minus the biggest drug abusers in the US, white people) will not get the vote or the support of black vote. The cynical ploy of backtracking because Bloomberg need the African-American vote will not work.
Ask Pamela Harris and the Clintons.
6
The problem with the Democratic Party is the sway certain minority parties have. These minorities parties hold the democratic party hostage. Candidates have to cater to their whims. And these whims are not always beneficial to the good of the many.
Dear New York Times:
Michael Bloomberg apologized for his stop and frisk policy. No one is perfect. He owned it. Stop trying to make a big negative point about this. Otherwise we will end up with four more years of Trump. These purity tests that the media put candidates through is ridiculous and counterproductive. The destructive, corrupt actions of the current resident of the White House far outweighs any negative points in the current democratic field.
12
It’s not the media reporting. Trump and son both are using this on twitter against Bloomberg, ironically, and it is upsetting a lot of people. It’s a challenge and there will be more as Trump will take every chance. Look what he did in 2016.
This is a racist tirade not a "Blunt Defense of Stop-and-Frisk". He point-blank says that all crime is committed by male minorities between the ages of 15 and 25. David Duke couldn't even come up with something as racist as to say that you can Xerox a copy of the description of the perpetrator of violent crime to describe who committed one crime to the next. Sorry, nobody lawfully walking down the street deserves to be slammed into wall.
If you want to stop the real crime that is destroying America, start profiling Brooks Brother suit wearing fraudsters on Wall Street. You want to make America great, start slamming these guys against the wall and search them for evidence of tax fraud, money laundering, bribery, toxic waste dumping and Ponzi schemes.
Bloomberg might be nominally better about recognizing democratic norms, but really there is absolutely no difference between him and Donald Trump. I WILL NEVER VOTE FOR HIM!
11
Mike i don’t think you vote. This just an excuse. OK. One vote off of the list of suspect voters.
I don’t believe Bloomberg is racist at all. His policy had racist implications, but only because it rested on the judgment of those charged with carrying out the mandate in communities of color (e.g. police). Furthermore, Bloomberg is not on the same moral plane nor the same moral universe as DTJ, meaning there isn’t one iota of equivalence shared between the two.
13
I"d like to see a strong Democrat candidate who can say "No",
Stop sucking voters up with sweet promises.
If people don't like it and vote for the Republicans, it's America's choice.
.
4
The problem with groveling is that it's never enough. Next time try: "Yeah, I said it. And I grieve for the black and brown families whose kids needlessly died after the courts told us to stop. Now go cancel someone else."
8
Left of center here, and am very interested in Bloomberg's evolution. He shows great insight and may very well be the antidote to the domestic enemy. I would vote for him in a NY minute to save my beloved country from a dictatorship.
14
I was never a fan of Bloomberg's stop and frisk policy, nor was I thrilled with his elitist sensibilities at times when he was mayor (e.g., reworking his credentials to land a third term).
Having said that, I would be happy to vote for him if he is the Democratic nominee, and I am delighted that he is taking trump on in a way that will drive trump crazier.
10
Only proves that Mike Bloomberg can act like an adult in the room when it is needed. Any Democrat can curry favors by giving away presents, unfortunately, the real world is not Christmas or Disneyland.
Good on you Mr Bloomberg. New York today is a city to be proud of, and it vows foreign tourists who feel safe there. Thanks to Mr Bloomberg.
5
If you treat people like criminals they are more likely to become criminals. That's the insidious danger of policies like stop and frisk. They do more to perpetuate a crime problem in a community than they do to solve it.
6
@617to416
I don't buy that logic for a minute.
1
@Joseph
Very few of the stop and frisk victims were carrying guns. Most were black kids doing nothing but hanging out on a corner or, at worst, doing things like riding bicycles on sidewalks.
White people don't care about black children being harassed like this. But to black kids it sends a message that you are a worthless criminal. That has done immense psychological damage to these children. Smug white people don't care. They just continuing believing black people are bad and deserve whatever they get.
That's how racism works in America.
In a desperate attempt to make cities safer in the 1990’s everyone implemented some version of Stop and Frisk. Some called it Community Policing, some Feet on the Street.
Having more cops on the streets of neighborhoods that were under siege from drugs, crime and poverty ended up being one avenue toward ending the violence. Unfortunately some over zealous police actions may have gone too far.
Bloomberg listened to his officers, the communities being victimized and his constituents before course correcting.
That’s the kind of leader we need.
12
I'm a Democrat and native New Yorker and hate Trump with every bone and I can say with complete conviction that Bloomberg, who was the best mayor since LaGuardia, is absolutely NOT racist, unless trying to save lives by driving down crime is racism. Let me add that I did NOT vote for him his first term, and I was wrong. If you're unaware of his MYRIAD achievements in a city that is tough to govern (just ask DeBlasio who is NOT governing) you can Google them. You might start with, aside from the precipitous drop in crime, banning smoking in public places, putting calorie counts on menus, bringing bicycles to the City, decisively supporting same-sex marriage and so on and so on.
17
I have mixed feelings about stop and frisk. To be certain if police were overzealous in enforcing it and using to simply harass young black and hispanic men, then those acts should be halted. But it’s original intent was to remove illegal guns from the street. Which it did! But it’s focus became lost, and it was doomed.
Which brings me to this observation:
Has anyone else noticed that practically every day in the NYC in the recent past, there’s at least one shooting. Sometimes two. And they’re happening everywhere: busy streets, subway platforms, police precincts.
7
@Stephen
it was not about removing guns. it was about discouraging people from packing guns. if it was about confiscating weapons, success could e measured by amount confiscated. it was about getting people to leave their guns at home to reduce street gunfights.
if i attend a concert, I may get frisked. i'm a white guy with a PhD and a high income. I still get patted down before concerts and events. those security isn't trying to collects guns. security wants concertgoers to think "i'll probably get frisked. I'd better leave my gun at home." the more guns that stay at home, the fewer guns that will be fired in the streets.
Stop and Frisk is one the mot effective policies in the history of urban living. if everyone wore skinny jeans and tank tops like a Wlliamsburg hipster, nobody would get frisked. you can't conceal even a pimple in skinny jeans.
The policy was ineffective as shown by crime going down when DeBlasio ending it. Bloomberg has admitted that it was wrong and has apologized. Yet many of his supporters on this board are still defending it by repeating negative stereotypes about minorities as if that was going to convince the people who most hated the policy to vote for him. If your goal is to promote his campaign, you are not helping him...
7
The only two democrats that have any chance at defeating Trump, Biden and Bloomberg and democrats themselves are sabotoging both campaigns. They may even lose the house with the way they are going. Lose the black vote by even a few percentage points and it's all over. Throw the "squad" in there for good measure and Republican's work is done for them.
5
Will Bloomberg get a pass? Will the DNC and other candidates take his money if he drops out? Why do I think the answer is Yes?
1
I am a white male . I’ve been stopped and frisked .
I far as I can tell the policy isn’t the problem , it’s how the police implement it .
Stop and frisk has been reviewed in the Supreme Court and it was determined constitutional , if implemented in the correct way .
This seems to just an attempt to smear Michael Bloomberg.
9
This is like the Romney 47% video in 2012 hopefully it has the same effect.
Most Black people in America know where we stand, I wonder what other group's civil liberties are the good white folks willing to sacrifice to achieve their good intentions.
8
@AC
"Good intentions" as in protecting black citizens from black predators? During gang-saturated LA of the '90s, it was black citizens demanding the kinds of tough anti-gang policing that targeted young black males, because it was overwhelmingly young black males that were terrorizing their neighborhoods. Once that policing showed effective and the job was done, then it all became overbearing white racism.
5
No worries. The two party system does not work for us. Democrats have essentially used our votes against. As a former Democrat, I gladly say “MAGA 2020”.
I said this last week when Bloomberg wrote his column. I only need three words to explain the entire tenure of his administration while in NYC. Stop and Frisk!
It was a racist policy that he championed and continued to use even after it was shown to be incredibly misguided and flat out racist. This policy didn’t lead to more arrests and more contraband was found on whites than blacks. Here we have him in his own words defending this disgusting policy and trying to lie about the fact that he inherited it, but promptly stopped it. Does he think we are are stupid? He is on record defending stop and frisk as late as November of 2019!
As a black voter you will never get my vote after violating our constitutional rights so liberally. Your apology has got to be the most pathetic and self-serving political moves I have ever seen. You don’t care about us as human beings
13
It seems like it is possible to be "tough on crime" without ignoring people's rights and dignity. It is not like NYC has no tax base to pay for it.
Bloomberg seems more likely to be the worst of both worlds politically - painted as a "gun grabber" but also viewed with suspicion by many on the left than he is to be a unifier. Policies that seem good in NYC or a college town may not translate well to the pivotal areas for the upcoming election.
Without the capacity to bury us in ads that make him look good for half a minute, we would not be talking about him as a candidate. If that does not give voters concerns about what it implies for our democracy, I am not sure four more years of Trump would, either.
15
Stop-and-frisk reduces crime: it succeeds where few other techniques can. We need more of it not less. Stop crime, don't pander to dangerous criminals and their supporters.
26
@Swamp Fox The data actually shows that stop-and-frisk is quite ineffective- http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/new-analysis-shows-just-how-ineffective
7
@Swamp Fox Employed citizens do not commit crime. Even Bloomberg knows that, so why did he not rev the NYC economy for EVERYBODY?
3
@Peter that study was massively flawed and politically motivated. Convictions do not correlate with crimes stopped or avoided. Putting the rights of criminals above the rights of victims is Trump doctrine not good democracy.
3
This is a delicate and nuanced topic. Race, incomes, and crime coincide in some of our most disadvantaged neighborhoods. If you are going to payroll these neighborhoods, undoubtedly minorities will end up getting targeted in greater numbers. There has to be a balance and this is an ever evolving topic, and it's unfair to simply pin this on Bloomberg.
19
I find it interesting that centrists are ready to take kid gloves to Bloomberg who gave money to many Republican candidates including both Bushes but wouldn't dare apply the whole "HE'S NOT A DEMOCRAT" to him.
12
@Borstalboy: it doesn't matter what party he is from. He is interested in combatting climate change, wants stronger gun restrictions, and will fight for a woman's right to choose.
8
@RE
So will Bernie Sanders, without being a plutocrat.
@Carl But Sanders won’t get elected.
This story is the output of oppo research by the RNC, right wing social media, and gullible “progressives” who will never be able to find the perfect candidate—someone who’s said done or done anything that could be construed as racist.
Already today, Bloomberg and Klobuchar have been placed in the media spotlight for years ago transgressions. Funny and not so coincidental that these stories have broken just as these candidates’ fortunes began to rise.
The Achilles Heel of the Democratic coalition is that insists on candidates who have never made a mistake. Compare that insistence with the GOP. Trump can do or say whatever he wants and the entire GOP shrugs its shoulders.
One party can get away with murder. The other can’t get away with making even one mistake.
21
@PaulB67 The phrase in the first paragraph of this story "is widely circuiting on social media" is the most telling. Can you at the NYTimes look into how this is spreading on social media? This is the typical use of fear and character assassination so well perfected by Cambridge Analytica methods. How can we possibly have a fair election in these current times where social media is used for fear, to sow doubt, to sent the media on tangential stories rather than the important news of the day.
How many blonde men in $1,600 pin stripped suits were ever stopped and frisked ? It is well known fact that the intense pressure of Wall Street jobs can lead to cocaine use and that type of individual can afford the cost.
12
@Alan the whole point was to get the guns. Did the Wall streeters generally carry guns?
4
@Alan Stop and Frisk was to reduce gun violence. How many blonde men in $1600 suits are shooting up the neighborhood?
6
It's well known that cocaine is rampant in the Wall St. community, but the thing is, they don't carry guns around much or assault random people. And worse, while cops might stop them and might even find their coke, they have enough money to hire top-caliber defense lawyers and no convictions would ever be made. So, unfortunately, it makes no sense to bother with stopping and frisking Wall St. types, whether they're blonde or not.
3
I suggest that people remember that nearly all Republicans and Democrats in public life joined the war drugs (doublespeak for racism), along with police departments nationwide, AND the Supreme Court in a decades long undertaking targeting people of color for drug use.
Refresh your memories.
Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow- Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" exhaustively documents what went on.
The establishment shares the guilt.
Why make Bloomberg the nation's whipping post? To be fair, youneed to go after all the politicians still in office, the police, and the Supreme Court justices. It's a very long list. You are going to be very busy.
8
This is either a huge liability or a huge win.
Think Trump's supporters like stop and frisk and racial profiling? You bet they do.
Yet Bloomberg has also apologized.
Can he get away with speaking out of both sides of his mouth? We shall see.
5
The issue was not the policy. It was the overzealous and abuse in enforcing the policy.
The only thing Bloomberg has to apologize for is how the policy was executed. The idea of the policy was sound.
6
It's one thing to go on the field and play the same game the others are playing. It's quite another to establish a new field with YOUR rules and then present yourself as somehow better qualified just because you have a ton of money and an inflated ego. That Mr Bloomberg doesn't seem to have a clue in this regard clearly indicates his inappropriateness for the presidency.
5
@Margie Moore
He built an incredibly successful business empire out of virtually nothing, created tens of thousands of jobs as a private citizen, far more as a very successful mayor of the largest, most complicated city in the US. He has more success in actually doing something, and running something, than all the other candidates put together.
That, not his money or his ego, is what makes him qualified.
5
God I hope this election doesn't come down to a choice between two racist billionaires, one of whom has the great benefit of being less racist than the other.
18
I’m pretty sure there would only be one billionaire in that matchup. Trump lies and exaggerates.
1
Question is which democrat leaked the audio? My guess is Biden since he’s crashing in the polls, and minority support was switching to Bloomberg.
2
@JOSEPH
Sorry. But your guess is only that. A guess.
@JOSEPH
I do wonder who provided it.
Still trying to sabotage Mike, eh?
He already apologized for a policy that was promoted by his Police Commissioner, Raymond Kelly. How terrible -- deferring to the opinion of his top law enforcement official.
BTW, despite all the trauma suffered by young black men who were frisked, the gun homicide rate was reduced by 33%. In the decade before Bloomberg's first term, gun homicides in the city averaged over 1,000 a year. By far the highest percentage of victims were young black men, four times more than young Hispanics, who ranked second as victims.
In the last year of his last term there were 644 shooting deaths in the city. By taking hundreds of illegal guns off the streets, primarily in the Bronx and Brooklyn, Bloomberg saved hundreds of young black men's lives.
As determined as a certain Times reporter whose mom works a PR firm hired by the Trumps and the Kushners might be to kneecap the campaign of the one candidate who has the best chance of defeating Trump, hit pieces like this one won't knock him out of the race.
I'll gladly vote for Mike Bloomberg, who's a champion and funder of efforts to fight gun violence, climate change, environmental pollution, and in support of minority entrepreneurship, education, and voter registration, while he's also funded the campaigns of Democratic congressional candidates. Also, he's vowed to support the Democratic nominee, whoever it is, and to fund the Democratic presidential campaign. He's not in it for him; he's in it for us.
41
@GFE. Not hundreds of young black lives: thousands. Ten thousand over the life of Stop and Frisk.
6
Just imagine what Mayor-as-Conceirge says about the working classes off record. Bloomberg always seemed to me as someone who regards himself as better than the people and is entitled to lead them for the sake of the city/country. Was Bloomberg's "vision" anything more than condescending cant written for his polloi?
6
Stop and Frisk took a lot of bad people of the streerts, guns too.
That it disproportiontly caught up African Americans is because African Americans are doing a disproportionate amount of the shootings.
22
Bloomberg is the human avatar of Wall Street: racist, sexist, elitist and violently authoritarian. He admires China's dictatorship more than American democracy. If he were nominated Trump would pick him apart limb from limb.
6
So he’s trumps twin? Is that your conclusion? Sounds like it to me.
1
Keeping Rudy;'s racist policy in place is the best argument for this pompous billionaire republican out of the democratic race. If I am forced to choose between Bloomberg and Trump it will be an extreme disappointment.
3
Mike's camapaign for the nomination ended today, he may not know it but its over
7
@philip I don't think so.
1
Democrats don't understand that while stop and frisk may hurt Bloomberg in the cities, his support for gun control makes him unelectable in the rest of the country, including the critical swing states. This is a political fact of life that has elected Republicans for a generation.
5
@someoneelse- how can that be true when the wide majority of Americans on both sides agree we need tougher gun laws? Who is tough enough to go up against NRA to get it done?
Clearly it’s not Trump.
Let’s try someone not beholden to NRA funding for their candidacy
3
@Enough Trump took NRA money during the 2016 primaries? Try again.
1
@Enough The majority support some minor measures like background checks, but most gun owners believe that the goal of gun control groups, with Bloomsberg at the helm, is to ban all guns. They vote accordingly.
Bloomberg's enthusiastic embrace of "stop and frisk" and "broken windows" policing, which intentionally targeted black and brown men, is one of his two most serious liabilities for Democratic voters. Yes, he apologized for that last year. But even to me, a white person, that apology seemed more like pro-forma box-ticking than a sign of genuine contrition for implementing overtly racist policies, regardless of the intent. The 2015 tape, along with his defense of his policing policy in 2018, only reinforces the lack of sincerity.
Bloomberg's other serious liability is that he is one of the richest men in the country. The 2016 election showed that voters across the country increasingly believe (with some justification) that billionaires are responsible ever-increasing inequality, rigging the economy to increase their wealth at everyone else's expense. Just as there is good reason to doubt Bloomberg's sincerity about no longer embracing racist policing, there is good reason to question the sincerity of his new-found apparent interest in correcting economic inequality and taxing the wealthy.
Bloomberg may believe he can buy the Democratic nomination. But I'm not sure what it would cost to convince racial-minority voters that he no longer paints all of them with a criminal brush, and to overcome the distrust billionaires have earned for themselves. But I have the sinking feeling he'll get a pass on all that when the donor elites select him in a brokered convention.
9
It was the right policy. It made the streets of New York safe.
He should be proud of this success, not apologetic.
18
Bloomberg's stop and frisk policy was overturned in a 2013 court order.
Based on many posters here, the theory was that the criminals left their guns under their beds for fear of being arrested. Based on this theory, the guns should have come out from under the beds and the murder rate would have skyrocketed.
But the murder rate continued to decline. So how does one justify stop and frisk? Other than it was promoted by the only guy people think can stop Bernie Sanders.
4
Stop & Frisk was an extremely effective tool in reducing the weapons carry proclivity of the street level drug dealing enterprises ubiquitous in the very areas victimized by the Trade. No excuses should be made for its LAWFUL employment under the then N.Y.S. Penal Law Statutes . One does not have to be a prophet to divine higher rates of weapon violence coming down the pike in these very areas decried by civil libertarians as those targeted by the cruel , corrupt discriminating Establishment. Criminality is fought in the Areas that statistics and Community Feedback indicates it exists. It should not be fought as an afterthought in the Emergency Rooms of The Health and Hospital System.
7
It’s not just minority communities impacted by “Stop-and-Frisk” but the entire NYC community. This was an ongoing offense to the dignity of all, an outrageous assault on the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment.
5
I worked on Wall Street. There were plenty of wealthy people who used and abused drugs. Stop and Frisk in downtown Manhattan and you'll get plenty of arrests also.
Selective enforcement, then pointing to results of bias forms a downward spiral. People say -- "see! look how many offenders we caught here". It creates arrest records, which prevent people from getting employment, which then results in crimes of desperation.
9
@Saif wealthy people aren’t concealed-carry shooting each other in the streets. This action was about stopping violent crime
1
I like Bloomberg. He is exactly the kind of candidate we need. Yes Stop and Frisk was an awful policy, that did not stop to consider the social message or the damage it might wreck on the the morale in poorer neighborhoods. But you know what, we need the republican rule gone. There is no stop and frisk today, we hopefully all have learned what not to do. He has apologized. Now let’s get the republicans out. As a person of color you are entitled to hold a grudge against him a candidate, but he is also the best chance we all have. So let’s vote him in. I’d rather have a direct, blunt, no nonsense candidate who is goal focused and who has learned to actually execute action. All the Bernie fans can sing his praises, but he has done little by way of executing anything compared to the women who stand tall, Klobuchar and Warren. But Bloomberg is a billionaire, he is doing the right thing by standing up for our nation, and he can win.
6
If indeed stop and frisk prevented crime then show the data. Bloomberg changed his mind after supporting a policy for years. Why is that? Is there new data or did he judge his stand too impolitic. Either way you hold a leader accountable by presenting the facts. Is violent crime much higher under Di Blasio? How do we know stop and frisk lowered criminality. We should demand facts from our leaders and hard data, without them any policy is suspect.
3
People seem to forget about Bloomberg’s recent past:
Spent $3M for Gov. Snyder’s 2014 campaign as the Flint crisis unfolded.
Gave $11M for GOP Sen. Toomey’s 2016 campaign, the deciding vote on Kavanaugh. He won by 1 point.
Terrorized minorities in NYC for a decade with racist and patently ineffective stop and frisk policies.
Endorsed George W Bush in 2004 during the Iraq quagmire.
Also, do we really want to nominate a republican-lite billionaire? How inspiring!
9
I agree with the 2015 comments by Bloomberg and think he does too. What he's saying now is mealy-mouth nonsense to get elected in a left wing primary.
3
Look - it worked.
Crime took a nose dive and our streets were safe, clean as could be and we had a whole different level of standard of living under Bloomberg.
Under Mayor Liberal, the city has taken a nose dive. Crime is 'down' just because the mayor told the NYPD to ignore drug offenses.
Drug use is rampant now, drug sales happen in broad daylight and no one stops them any more. Why? the Liberal mayor, that is why. Since no one is arrested for that, crime 'is down', yet in reality it is way way WAY up from where Bloomberg left us.
Why did he do that? because Mayor Liberal promised Liberals to decriminalize pot. They voted for him, twice, with this in mind. He did not make it legal, he simply told the NYPD to ignore drugs.
But that was one more Democrat change you can believe in, it never happened, we just looked the other way and look at us now.
That's what we got with a Liberal in charge. We want the Bloomberg standards back.
7
I know Bloomberg has to backtrack since he needs the black vote to get the nomination and win the presidency, but stop and frisk got guns off the street.
It is ironic that many people who support gun control also argue it is somehow impossible for stop and frisk to have worked...when it made sure guns were out of the wrong hands.
Can’t have it both ways my liberal friends.
2
You see, Bloomberg started out as a Democrat. Then he became a Republican to run for mayor. So, stop and frisk good.
Now, he goes back to a Democrat because he can’t run on the Republican ticket because Trump obviously has it. So now, stop and frisk bad.
In 2024 when Trump cannot run anymore, see Michael run as a Republican again. Stop and frisk good once more.
Will the real Mike Bloomberg Please stand up.
3
That's a very interesting situation!
Will people vote for Bloomberg because he was right?
Or will people vote for Bloomberg because he was wrong but apologized?
Will people not vote for Bloomberg because he was wrong?
Or will people not vote for Bloomberg because he was right but apologized?
2
All presidential candidates must be held up to scrutiny. And I am not a particular fan of Bloomberg, including the stop and frisk thing.
But democrats have to ask themselves: Is this hill you really want to die on? With all the outrageous things Trump has done -- just since impeachment! -- having a viable moderate in the running is critical.
Then again, maybe it isn't democrats who are blasting Bloomberg. Can anyone prove it isn't Russian impostors? Or much worse, the Trump campaign?
His comments will only help his cause. Democrats are routinely criticized for being too lenient on crime, and its hard to argue that putting law enforcement resources where most crime occurs make sense.
2
Everything he said is true.
Perps and victims predominantly fall into that group.
Why is he apologizing?
This is why he'll lose.
77
@Arch Stanton
No, it isn't true that 95% of murderer's are black, it's 52.5% (obviously disproportionate because of disproportionate poverty). These policies were a violation of civil rights because they lead to the mass incarceration of people who had never committed a violent crime.
9
@Arch Stanton Even Lee Atwater would have cited "at-risk communities" or similar rather than individuals.
4
Well, he calls it like he sees it. He’ll have no chance of winning the Democratic nomination if he tells the truth. Lol!!!
4
As an African American woman, an aunt to 3 African American young men, and Grandmother to an African American baby boy, I find the stop and frisk policy to have been harmful and beyond problematic. I am thankful that DeBlasio ended this heinous policy and I hope that other police forces will do the same. However, when I consider what kind of America I want my young men and all youngsters to live in I know that this present Trumpian vision is not it. I want an America where everyone pulls his own weight by way of having had a decent education, healthcare, and employment at a wage that will sustain a family. Further, I want decorum, diplomacy, truthfulness, and decency returned to the office of President. Therefore, if he is the Democrat nominee I will hold my nose and vote Bloomberg.
505
@Cassandra B please work with me to make the nominee someone with unrivaled honesty, truthfulness, and decency — Bernie Sanders
28
@Cassandra B
A wise choice Cassandra -- you see clearly that removing Trump is Priority One. Then we can work on the rest.
THANK YOU for getting behind the Dem nominee whoever it is.
61
@Cassandra B
No disrespect meant. But it's going to take a lot more than just holding my nose for me to ever vote for Michael Bloomberg -- but then again, I'm from NYC where we know him best and also know that his racist "Stop and Frisk" policing policy is just as offensive as anything Donald Trump could come up with.
36
Why must the press always sling dirt on excellent candidates? Do you want Trump back in the White House?
Good, I thought so.
119
@Pups no candidate, excellent or not, better than Trump or not, is above factual reporting. Bloomberg potentially being a better president than Trump doesn't nullify the fact that he defended stop and frisk. Get out of here.
31
@Pups
And don’t forget all the Times email stories.
10
@Pups - my thoughts, exactly. Stop with the Bloomberg bashing.
22
This is socioeconomic profiling, not racial. But it turns out that minorities like myself grew up in neighborhoods that didn’t have that much money. Less money equals more crime. Law abiding minorities would welcome stop and frisk in their neighborhoods, it’s the thugs that complain about it. But no one‘s going to admit that.
308
It’s standard practice, in every other country in the world. Cars and pedestrians get stopped all the time, in every single European country.
16
@Weseegod
Yes, it was not racial. The people involved were terrorizing other black and Hispanics like themselves. Maybe some find it non-PC to arrest non-white criminals. Few New Yorkers thought and think that way, thankfully,
No one in those neighborhoods told Mike to stop the program. It made their streets safer and life far better than it was.
i notice that yesterday it was reported that Mike's overall support among blacks is now only just behind that of Biden.
And way more than the Socialist candidates and others who portray themselves as progressive.
He is not an ideologue. He is a doer and he has lots to be proud of.
I welcome him as our next president.
67
Less money does not equal more crime. It equals different crime. White collar criminals steal amounts exponentially larger than poor people. White collar criminals push wars to increase their profits, costing the country trillions, while they demand tax cuts. Tons of murder involved, which most people consider a crime. Many religious people would say that demanding tax cuts on your millions while demanding cuts in services to the poor is a crime, or at least evil. Let’s not get things twisted, the rich are no less good or bad, but have the power to inflict far worse damage with their crimes.
22
At least he does not come with trump’s baggage and hasn’t committed fraud or scams. If he became the nominee I would vote for him.
170
@James No, USA deserve better than Trump or Bloomberg. Reject both.
16
@James I think he is the only candidate who can go toe to toe with Trump in what will be a very nasty campaign. That’s why he got my vote. Mailed my ballot on Saturday.
3
This "guy" is a flat our racist. Clearly equating "minorities" and crime. How sad. Just 60 years after the Holocaust, some people never learn.
12
@david gallardo Yes, because as we all know, there is absolutely no correlation between living in a minority neighborhood and being a crime victim. None whatsoever. Can't imagine who would look at FBI crime statistics and ever think such a thought. They would have to be completely insane.
4
@david gallardo STATISTICS equate minorities and violent crime. There's just no getting around that. In order to tackle crime, you've got to nail it at its source. Period.
2
@david gallardo : Here in DC inner city African American males age 13 - 25 commit a disproportionate amount of violent crimes. If the police ignored that fact they would not be doing their job.
2
The inconvenient truth is that the murder rate in minority neighborhoods decreased by 50% because the bad actors who were making life impossible in these neighborhoods were identified, their illegal weapons taken away, and the residents got their lives back.
That is why Mike was re-elected twice and with enormous support in these black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
He made NYC safer and was the best mayor the city has had in many years.
73
@Simon Sez
I have no idea where you're getting your information, but suffice it to say it's not exactly true.
In any case, it's always amusing when people who don't live here come out with such fiction.
And just for the record.
Bloomberg wasn't reelected with "enormous support" in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
11
@Simon Sez
Bloomberg was not re-elected with enormous Black support. To say otherwise is a lie.
8
Now do you understand the Television industry owners own your lives?
7
VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO...we have to stop all the corruption of this current administration!
7
Bloomberg is hurting his election chances by apologizing for stop and frisk and for maintaining his anti gun stance.
I think most Americans admired NYCs crack down on crime and taking credit for that would have gained him support.
His anti gun message just flys in the face of the rising crime rates in NYC and other cities being run by leftist Democrats. Americans desire to be capable of defending themselves and their loved ones in the event that, God forbid, more of these leftist liberals are elected and mimic the fiasco in NYC and NYS.
11
@John Gilday One of the claimed purposes of Stop and Frisk was to seize guns illegally possessed. The murder rate in NYC has decreased dramatically over the last two decades and reached lows not seen since the 50s or so. Many of and many in America's major cities are flourishing, as a result of recent economic growth having been distributed geographically unequally. Republicans would be better served addressing issues such as languishing education systems, drug epidemics, poor healthcare, etc. in their constituencies than in depicting NYC as a dystopia.
3
This is more of an indictment of social media than of Bloomberg.
The hash tag #BloombergIsARacist seeks to label Bloomberg while providing a snippet of information. I really hope people don't think in such a knee jerk fashion.
What any thinking person ought to ask is "What did Bloomberg mean by this?"; " Did overall crime and murder in particular decline during his tenure?"; "Did crime stats in low income minority neighborhoods show a decline?" (since Bloomberg stated "that's where the crimes are."); "Did Stop and Frisk contribute in any manner to declining crime rates? Was it justifiable? How do courts see this type of policing?"
So tired of our fixation with social media, it serves a limited purpose: short bursts of speech intended to get a visceral reaction. These "shouts from the sewer" do little in terms of thinking anything through.
20
@They Thank you. I would have said it just like that.
1
@They
The courts stopped Bloomberg's iteration of stop-n-frisk because it was unconstitutional. You can actually look this stuff up.
If Trump said "You can just xerox the description of black males as criminals and hand them out to the police" or "throw the (black) kids up against the wall" many people would say he's a racist.
It is possible that BOTH Trump and Bloomberg have low opinions of Black people. One refused to rent to them and thinks they're lazy. The other used the police force to harass them and boasted about it. Neither hired them.
Trump and Bloomberg may disagree about many things. But both have a deep abiding contempt for Black people and for constitutional limits on police.
4
@Lilo
Yes, I was reading a bit about the constitutionality of "Stop and Frisk", seems to be an interesting history.
The statement that "95% of murders-murderers and murder victims-fit one M.O." was very interesting. Is this a fact? In looking at a couple of sites, they seem to validate this. Need more info.
Not sure all this indicates contempt for minorities or racism.
The fact that a dusturbing amount of democrats are willing to quickly forgive someone who actively maintained and later defended his stop and frisk policy - up until he needed our black votes for the 2020 primary - is more proof that racial justice is still a far away dream.
Happy black history month.
12
Well yes, Bloomberg was at the time a Republican, because that aided his quest to be mayor. Such talk was to be expected.
Now he calls himself a Democrat, because that is the party he needs to be in to become president. Of course he's going to be talking out of the other side of his mouth.
How stupid are we if we continue to listen and believe?
24
It's inevitable this comes out, yet again, to be justifiably used. Yet Bloomberg naively or arrogantly thought he could be elected president of the US. Maybe being a billionaire does that to people?
Most important--- should we elect anyone as president after a federal judge ruled his excessive stop/frisk policy was an unconstitutional violation of the 4th Amendment?
Then Bloomberg appealed the ruling. He lost. Now his run for president is a loser.
Mara Gay's NYT past article -- "Bloomberg Apologizes for Stop-and-Frisk at Just the Right Time."
... "He had long defended Stop and Frisk, but data showed in 88 percent of the stops, there was no arrest."
"By the time he left office, New Yorkers had been stopped by the police more than five million times. An entire generation of black and Latino children had grown up accustomed to getting “tossed” by the police on their way home from school."
And this man thinks he'll be elected president?
8
@Meredith It was not a policy he started, but it was necessary at the time.
@Ric Max ...even if someone else started it, so what?He extended and defended 5 millions stops --most found no evidence of crime.
Just how was the judge mistaken ruling it a violation of 4th Amendment?
To his credit, Hizzoner left the city in a far far better shape than it is now. Now it is a dump with garbage strewn streets and homeless abound. The local govt. is bloated, Dumblasio is a joke of a mayor whose wife blew through $1B (yes that's BILLION bucks) in her Thrive NYC program, which she now just refuses to talk about. I wish Hizzoner had the guts to own up to stop and frisk and not be defensive about it. He lost my vote by trying to be politically correct and with that mindset he won't make a good POTUS.
8
I am shocked - shocked - that an elected official once defended a policy his administration enacted.
The Times has really gone off the deep end with its hit pieces based on opposition research. How about addressing issues relating to -this- election?
8
Bloomberg is not a white nationalist. Mike had the courage to run an anti-gun ad during the Super Bowl. Name another human being who would do that. Mike is a true billionaire, ahem, unlike the others. He is an approachable heavyweight guy who gets things done.
Mike for President, Amy Klobuchar for VP
28
@Michael
Not gonna happen.
There is no Bloomberg bashing here....the article reports Bloomberg's defense of his toughness on crime. Actually, this is another Bloomberg fluff piece. Under Bloomberg even more people were arrested for marijuana possession than under Giuliani. Bloomberg had no reaction when a hasty policeman chased an unarmed youth, Ramarley Graham, into his apartment gunning him down in front of his grandmother and six-year old brother as he tried to flush a small bag of pot he had just bought down the toilet. Bloomberg offered no solace to the family or the community.
Certainly, Bloomberg is better than Trump as is every single one of the democratic candidates. However, he will not represent the interests of the majority of the democratic party should he get the nomination.
11
The mask really comes off with the largely upper-middle and upper class NYtimes readers when a Bernie Sanders nomination appears likely: the posturing towards caring about racial or socioeconomic justice is cast off entirely; "give me a racist oligarch, just don't raise my taxes"
Honestly disgusted
12
He and his money are making bigger fools out of "Democrats" then y'all are doing on your own.
It's fun watching all of the nominal "liberals" out there tussle with themselves publicly over this foul Trump variant.
Love,
The True Left
2
A recent poll indicates that black voter support has shifted from Biden to Bloomberg on the order of 50%. This is a huge change. If Biden drops out, that percentage probably will get much larger. It appears then that this stop and frisk policy is not a deal breaker for the majority of blacks.
The issue here is to stop a white nationalist from turning America into an ethnocentric nationalist nation run for and by white people. More specifically, white Christian males.
Bloomberg needs to have a direct and frank conversation with black communities, not black celebrities and media personalities.
Black people are not stupid. They are not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. They understand what Trump represents, the threat he poses to their lives. Stopping Trump is the goal that must be achieved.
Truth is that the vast majority of victims of black crime are black people. People who live in constant fear of street thugs understand what it takes to make the streets safe again and therapy groups aren't the first step.
Is stop and frisk wrong. Yes. Is it a violation of peoples' civil rights. Yes. Did it reduce crime? Yes. Is is forgivable? Yes.
Does the ends justify the means? They do when you are getting shot at, or beat to a pulp.
Let's turn the circular firing squad against Trump. Michael Bloomberg may very well be the strongest candidate to beat Trump. Let's give him a chance to work through this.
9
@Bruce Rozenblit
No it did not reduce crime.
No it is not forgivable.
There are all sorts of evil, illegal or unconstitutional actions that might "reduce crime". Somehow people seem to be eager to overlook them when they're aimed at Black people. When they're aimed at White people suddenly everyone becomes a Live free or Die constitution quoting expert.
It's because a lot of white people, liberals included, don't really believe, deep down where it counts, that Black people are full citizens.
3
@Bruce Rozenblit
What poll are talking about? What's the link?
That said, I find it impossible to believe Black support is shifting from Biden to Bloomberg.
Why?
You said it. "Black people are not stupid".
Which is also why most of us didn't vote for Trump.
1
“Stop & Frisk” is something that made me uncomfortable. Mike’s comments might turn off some voters but they may appeal to others. They’re not quite the dog whistle others have been blowing into but they’re in the same “key”.
No, I don’t think Mike is racist for the record.
3
It takes all of 60 seconds to Google crime statistics to learn that it is WHITE people who commit the majority of violent crime. Google it. The facts are there. I'm disgusted to read so many comments agreeing with Bloomberg's blatantly racist remarks.
10
@Ann : in the whole country, where blacks are a small minority of the population, yes. But in NYC, check your stats!
1
But, but - he apologized!
So all is well now! Let's see what else he is going to "apologize" for.
Such nonsense.
Bloomberg will not get the nomination.
And if by some billion dollar bought miracle, he actually does get the nomination..
He will lose to Trump.
And everyone know this. But hey, it's his billions to burn so..go right ahead.
7
@DB Especially Bloomberg himself!
Of course you place more cops where crime is higher. Stop and frisk is a controversial policy that can be defended. But sadly for Bloomberg, he made a groveling apology just before he announced his candidacy.
What cannot be defended? Looking for guns and finding marijuana. Instead of the police escorting those people to the nearest storm sewer and have them dump it, they were arrested.
And while they were being arrested, white people could walk around with as much marijuana as they could stuff in their pockets with zero worries that a cop would stop them.
Huge problem for Mr. Bloomberg.
11
I’m afraid I won’t see a female president in my lifetime. Why are we so scared of powerful women in this country?
3
@Pigenfrafyn
Sure we can,
Nikki Haley 2024/2028.
1
It would seem that Ben Dixon is having a fit of the vapours and is worried that his man Sanders would fare poorly against Bloomberg. Besides, Bloomberg has stated his regrets and apologised; what else does Dixon want?
However, facts need to be acknowledged. Is it racist to claim that most massacres in the US are committed by white males with assault rifles? No, because it's a fact. It's also a fact that the demographic most likely to commit crimes of any sort are males (of all races/ethnic groups) in the 16 - 25 age group.
It's also the case that more crimes are committed in poor areas than in wealthier ones; it's not racism, it's what the data tell us, and only a fool (like Trump) disregards data.
So again, this seems to be a panicked attempt by Mr Dixon to stir something up against Bloomberg.
1
Unbelievable that there are actually people defending this racist. Luckily we have a lot of alternatives for defeating Trump in November. One of them is going to win the NH primary tonight.
8
Really put's into perspective how shockingly bad this list of candidates is. The party is crying out for a candidate like Obama that can inspire and fire up the base.
2
Excellent, this will help to separate those who are actually Democrats and support Democratic values from those who are open racists sympathetic to the GOP, who love the substance of Trump’s policy achievements but dislike his style. If you support Bloomberg, and especially if you double down now, you are in the latter camp and nothing you say can conceal the truth of that.
2
The statistics on Stop and Frisk showed that 88% of stops resulted in an innocent person being stopped. I'm sure this did a lot for police community relations. To say this worked is laughable and it violated the rights of so many New York city residents for a 12% success rate. If it was majority white people being stopped, the policy would have ended before it even started. There's plenty of drugs being sold in white neighborhoods but by his own admission the cops weren't policing those areas. How do you know there's no crime there if there's no cops there to police it? Instead you police black and brown neighborhoods and actively search for crimes based on this policy. Bloomberg's words in 2015 will hopefully end his campaign and let this rich racist aristocrat ride off into the sunset.
12
Money talks for Dems. Not too long time ago Hillary had a formidable backing of over a billion $s for her presidential run and she won the popular vote. Bloom (Bloom) has 50 billion and he could easily outspend anyone. So the saying money makes the mayor go will overshadow everything. All the mayors of US are behind mayor Bloom and not mayor Pete. Louisville mayor Fischer joined Bloom campaign while ago. I understand mayor of DC Ms Bowser is behind Bloom too.
As far as the viral video of the mayor making racist comments in private, he was just expressing his personal views that he would not have the guts to say publicly. I don't think he will wiggle himself out of that but then again money talks. There is no one he cannot buy. He will just say sorry to African American (AA) New Yorkers and his critics will melt away and everything will be hunky dory. Already there are signs that the AA community is moving away from Joe and bidding him a good bye and moving into the arms of Bloom.
I did hear the audio of Bloom's discriminatory actions against minorities. It brought back sad memories of a nonwhite doctoral student, I mentored who moved to NYC about 5 years ago when stop and frisk policy was still in force. Being an avid jogger he was one jogging alone in NYC when a couple of NYPD cops stopped him and asked him for his driver's license. When he said he did not have it and did not think he needed one to run around, the cops twisted his arm and hand cuffed him to the ground.
8
@Girish Kotwal Our city's Mayor Fischer endorsing Bloomberg means all of diddly-squat: Greg is a lame-duck last-termer, isn't very well liked by the Dem rank-and-file, and much like, well, Trump, he inherited his wealth. At least Bloomberg, terrible candidate that he is, "earned" his (the quotation marks are there for a reason).
The one positive thing I can say for Mayor Fischer is at least he seems to get that the Louisville Metro Police Department needs to reform how it interacts in our city's predominantly-African American West End. Sadly, Bloomberg never understood that the NYPD's heavy-handed stop-and-frisk policy not only harmed communities, but wasn't even effective policy!
2
@Joel Mayor Fischer was reelected twice and he did earn his wealth by building a company that sold for 75 million shared by the Fischer family. I have seen with my own eyes Mayor Fischer's interactions with the African Americans is the west end. He gave one of his best speeches at the Ali's boyhood home. This country is a country that rewards risk takers and entrepreneurs and as you will keep hearing it will never be a socialist country. Mayor Fischer is not the only one supporting mayor Bloomberg. Many more mayors will rally around him.
1
Can we please get regular publication of a summation of all of Trump’s faults/ delinquent and false statements/crimes and potential crimes? The more we hear this it will remind the public of his grave failing as a president. Bloomberg will shine like an angel.
2
"They are male, minorities, 16 to 25." Is this statement false? Do the statistics say otherwise? What is the objective data?
3
@Eugene
The majority of male minorities who are aged 16 to 25 have not committed ANY crimes. You need reasonable suspicion and/or probable cause to stop and frisk someone.
Just being a young Black or Hispanic man (or boy since a lot of people stopped were preteens) is not reasonable suspicion or probable cause under the constitution. There was already a ruling on this.
Go out and look for individual A, who is of X ethnicity and is wanted for crime Z, is legitimate use of police authority.
Go out and harass EVERYONE of ethnicity X because they're probably up to something is illegitimate use of police authority.
People might better understand this concept if say someone like David Duke or Steve Sailer started talking about "Jewish crime".
2
With all his flaws I would have voted for him. This might doom his chances.
2
I'd like to know if the numbers Bloomberg talks about are accurate. Are the communities in question disproportionately victims of or responsible for murders in New York and other cities, to the extent Bloomberg represents? Is he dishonest and cruel, or was he addressing a genuine and tragic social problem?
3
I would say most people don't care "Stop-and-Frisk". Most people care about safe neighborhoods and the wellbeing of their families. Mr. Bloomberg should not worry about that old policy. This is not the time for politically correct fluffiness.
Drug/gang related violent crimes in poorer communities have a trend weather people like or not. Crimes committed by white supremacist have a trend. Terrorist acts committed by foreign individuals have a trend. Crimes committed by politicians have a trend.
2
Bloomberg apologized. Can you think of even one time Trump apologized for anything? No and he never will. He will destroy our country, but ask yourself - will you sit home and pout if your candidate is not the nominee (speaking to Bernie Bros now) or will you work to defeat Trump against Bloomberg -Klobuchar or Bloomberg - Abrams?
2
Good for Bloomberg. Whether stop and frisk is the right thing to do, his honesty on the subject is refreshing. You put cops in the neighborhoods where there is crime.
3
Mike Bloomberg told the truth and now everyone is clutching their pearls.
I watch the news each night from Philadelphia and each night it's a the same -- shootings and killings of and by young black men. Yes, this is a fact. The shootings and killings are not taking place on the Mainline or in the suburbs or in the wealthier areas of the city -- they are happening in the impoverished, drug-infested sections of the city just as they were happening in those places in NYC.
We can pretend all that we want but this is a fact that we can't ignore and don't appear to be able to fix in 2010, 2015 or now.
3
The tedious, perpetual flogging of his Stop and Frisk policy & comments, for which Bloomberg apologized, admitting countless times that he mad a mistake, is just another not-very-effective distraction by the Trump/Republican juggernaut to keep journalistic focus away from the fact that Trump and the Republican party have taken extraordinary measures to make sure that the African-American vote is suppressed in every red state in the country. Ask Stacy Abrahms what she thinks about disenfranchisement and suppression by Republicans of the Black vote.
Bloomberg has addressed his mistake over and over again but Trump is never held to account by the for his racism or that of his Republican party.
5
Bloomberg should stop apologizing. Instead, he should embrace his past, and run on a National Stop & Frisk program. Sure, he may lose some liberal protest votes, but not most of them; where are they going to go? In a contest between Trump & Bloomie, they'll take Bloomie. Meanwhile, he will pick up a boatload of votes from Reps just looking for a reason not to vote for Trump, and who won't otherwise vote for Bernie, Warren or Pete.
4
@GMooG
If you want to guarantee a Trump victory, nominate Bloomberg. Black people are not going to vote en masse for Bloomberg. Anyone believing otherwise is deluding themself.
1
The election is being fixed. The goal appears to be an assured win by a Television billionaire from either side.
2
Bloomberg’s policies were aiming to protect all New Yorkers, particularly those in underprivileged neighborhoods.
Keep in mind that 10% of those detained under Stop and Frisk were guilty of a crime.
4
@Gian Piero Messi
So in that case you wouldn't mind the police kicking your door down without a warrant and checking out what you might be doing? Or if not you then the doors of your neighbors and family members.
After all I am sure that in 10% of the cases the police can find some law, no matter how minor, being violated.
3
Let's not forget that Bloomberg also had nearly two thousand peaceful demonstrators arrested illegally during the 2004 Republican National Convention that he had wooed to town. It took his lawyers years to settle the lawsuits, costing the taxpayers millions, thanks to him.
7
Bloomberg's campaign manager was asked about his stop-and-frisk policy. For Bloomberg, this is a test of his candidacy, i.e., how does he deal with a difficult issue. When Obama faced criticism over his "radical pastor," Obama turned the problem into a powerful speech that propelled his campaign. When Biden was asked about his son and the perceived or real conflict of interest in Ukraine, Biden refused to address it, and it has continued to dog him. So if Bloomberg is to be a credible candidate, he needs to give a speech that acknowledges how African Americans were unfairly hurt by the policy, show that he is in touch with the current needs of African Americans, and then talk what he plans to do for the African American community if his wins the presidency.
3
There is another important issue here not mentioned during this whole saga in which for several years, despite all evidence to the contrary, Bloomberg spent over $6 MILLION dollars of taxpayers money fighting the release of a "wrongfully convicted" black individual whose whole trial and conviction was in question almost right from the outset, yet, Bloomberg continued with that fruitless(and expensive) court fight.
Certainly, individuals can change, however, when it comes to an Oligarch, a "leopard never changes their spots".
7
Like it or not, Bloomberg’s position on stop and frisk will win him centrist votes in the primaries and will be a net plus in the general election.
2
This seems to the entirety of the left wing case against Bloomberg. It's not having any impact as Bloomberg rises in the polls.
Nominate Amy Klobuchar, most of the internecine warfare stops and we might beat Trump. It's time for a woman in the White House.
1
@SineDie
Her record as Hennepin County Attorney is as bad as Bloomberg's is on stop frisk.
She will not get the black and Latino vote, she won't win the nomination.
It is very likely that the Democratic convention will not be settled on the first ballot, unless Bernie or Biden somehow manage to get 1990 delegates. Bloomberg will have a very tough time getting the nomination, seems impossible on the first round IMHO.
On subsequent rounds, 2376 delegates will be the magic number, as the super-delegates will vote. It is unlikely that super-delegates will vote for Sanders in large numbers, because they will fear losing control of the house and not winning the senate. I am not saying this is the way it should be, but this is what very well could happen. If the convention gets torn apart by accusations and recriminations, Trump will be elected President.
People better start thinking about what a ticket would be that they could get behind. If it is "My way or the highway", then you might as well vote for Trump. We can all prognosticate until the cows come home about what the strongest ticket would be against Trump, but unless there is good will on both sides, and a willingness to compromise, the only winners will be the right wing. It is hard to imagine a ticket that unites supporters that does not have one progressive and one moderate.
Hopefully, the primaries will clarify a winner is, but winning is 1990 delegates on round 1, and 2376 delegates on subsequent rounds. The reason for super-delegates was large defeats in past years when the input of elected representatives was ignored.
4
Shocking news! Bloomberg claims that water runs downhill! That the earth is round! That the sun rises in the east!
We need leaders who acknowledge and deal with the real world, not ones who see the world through a rosy Utopian lens and spout feel good nonsense in the hopes of votes from others who live in a magical kingdom where everyone is saintly except the straight white males who create all Evil.
131
Actually the world is not round, it is sort of pear-shaped, as the South pole is closer to the center than the North pole, and both are closer than the equator.
And the sun only rises in the east two days a year, so the vast majority of the time, the sun does not rise due east.
Nonetheless if given the choice between Trump and Bloomberg, or Trump and a pathologically lying parrot, or Trump and a three pound chunk of granite, I will vote against Trump.
5
@Someone else Looking for guns, finding none, but then making arrests for marijuana possession. Really? Meanwhile, a white guy could walk past five cops with a few ounces in this pockets and have nothing to worry about.
13
If those comments were made by Trump then the Democrats would be outraged.
But, since they were made by a Democrat?
Well . . . that's different!
44
@Observer
You’re right. He sounds like a right winger.
Arrest people on pot possession in minority neighborhoods. How would this have been received in wealthy neighborhoods.
Like many have said he is basically a republican. He should run in the republican ticket to fight Trump.
15
Hindsight is 20/20
Unpleasant topic but his comments were basically true.
He is not a racist, just reciting facts about crime patterns which correlate to poverty and lack of opportunities that hit minority populations more heavily.
84
@peter and you’re forgetting heavier policing.
If you search for something you will find something.
I know my wive’s Ivy League dorm, if searched the way these cops were harassing black people, would’ve yielded a lot of criminals.
Facts.
12
@Joseph
If his wife's Ivy League dorm was anything like my University of Chicago dorm in the late 1970s and early 80s, most of us were committing crimes that would have had us arrested if there was a stop and frisk policy in place. Underage drinking, public drinking, drug dealing, and drug usage were rampant. If we were poor black kids, we'd all be in jail still.
1
Crime was down when Bloomberg was mayor. Now it is back up again. What do you want? A lawful society or have your throat cut?
85
@Don Juan Crime continued to decline after Bloomberg finally left. There has been a slight tick upwards the past two months. It is still lower than when Bloomberg left office.
16
@Don Juan
Try getting some facts. Crime has been down in NYC for many years and it is now one of the safest large cities in the country. It rose last month largely due to flawed bail reform enacted by NYS legislature.
16
Bernie, in the next debate, could absolutely destroy Bloomberg:
1) "You throw them up against the wall."
2) Looking for guns, but arresting blacks for marijuana. Meanwhile a white guy walking around Greenwich Village can have a pound in his backpack with no worries.
3) Claims that he reduced stop and frisk by over 90% in his last term, but it was because of a court order overturning his policies.
4) A groveling apology just before he announces.
IMHO, Mike Bloomberg is finished.
37
@Erik read the other comments. The rest of us are all supporting Bloomberg.
12
No the left is finished. And you with it.
7
@RE In a tight or contested convention, he will lose at least 25% of Bernie's voters. A multi-billionaire buying an election and screaming about climate change while he took his private jet to Bermuda every weekend to enjoy his mansion and yacht. Oh, big-time Iraq War supporter, endorsed GW Bush and Rudy. Also gave major funding to the Republican senator in PA, who won his election by less than 1%.
7
Put the cops in the neighborhoods with the highest crime ratings ... what's wrong with that?
81
@BD Wall Street?
10
@BD
The overwhelming majority of people arrested on child pornography charges are white men. So, I'm guessing you'd be perfectly mine if local police departments randomly came to the home of white men and ran forensic searches on their computers with no probable cause?
Right!
8
@Carl ... yes, quite so, if probable cause and appropriate search warrants were obtained.
Bloomberg lost my 2020 vote when he backed away from S&F.
10
@Grace Bernie already lost mine, this piles on.
1
So you’ll only vote for someone who S&Fs?
2
Stop and frisk was pretty harsh. But pro-gun conservatives calling it racist is ridiculous. All you righties were welcome to stroll through Brownsville at the height of stop and frisk, and that includes Trump and his lily-hued son.
19
@Mike Smith
S&F saved NYC. It was the brainchild of Bill Bratton, Giuliani's first PC, first tried in Boston, with great success. I lived for many years walking distance from Redhook & Alphabet City. In those days, mid-80's to early 90's, you did not venture out in Redhook unless your job was crime. Alphabet city, now also gentrified, was where you went if you didn't mind stepping over people passed out in doorways of public buildings.
If you don't know your NYC history how can you possibly offer a cogent opinion on S&F?
4
Klobuchar can win. She knows who she is and who the people are. And she’s by far the most presidential of the entire bunch. I was betting on Bloomberg, but no more. I am a black New Yorker who has been a Bloomberg fan. I’ve considered him to be a benevolent dictator, but this audio is too much. I can’t loathe the president’s racism and overlook Bloomberg’s just to defeat the president. That makes no sense. But I do believe that Democrats can go all in on Amy Klobuchar. She is qualified, realistic, and very Presidential.
15
@Stephanie Hendricks Why is it racism to say that the majority of crime is committed by male minorities 16-25? Is that factually not the case? Are you disputing these facts?
5
@Stephanie Hendricks
Only Bloomberg can beat Trump. Period.
3
@Stephanie Hendricks
Nope. Not a chance.
And you know it.
2
An interesting question is which of his competitors dug this up and posted it.
8
@Grace
What difference does that make?
Bloomberg doesn't deny saying this.
If you're going to run for President, your past comments are fair game.
No matter how many billions you have.
2
Probably the same one who reminded us of Chappaquiddick when Ted Kennedy had the audacity to run against incumbent Jimmy Carter.
This is has been in the news for weeks. It is not an absurd birther argument, though.
2
Keep your foot on Trump's throat Mr. Bloomberg. Your support of the police trying to make bad neighborhoods better is appreciated by those who live there. African Americans will support you over Trump without hesitation.
47
@Gary
But you don't live here. And you don't have a son who was stopped for being black and now has a permanent arrest record for carrying half a joint. It was an inherently racist implementation of a possibly reasonable theory. The proof is that, now that it's been discontinued, crime in those neighborhoods continues to decrease. It accomplished nothing positive and ruined police and community relations.
14
@Gary
Speak for yourself, I will not support Michael Bloomberg.
5
Crime went down disproportionately in minority communities, which was sort of the point. The fact that it eventually went too far is a fair point, but let's not lose sight of the fact that minority communities saw a huge net benefit from this policy. Some young men from those communities paid a high price for that, and that's a great shame, but Bloomberg's apologized for that. Let's move on. The real racist is sitting in the Oval Office.
34
"They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every every city"
That's not racism. It's data
169
@John data that is based on racist policy.
the basing NEW policy on said data inherently reinforces the racist systems that led to that data in the first place. Rinse and repeat.
Your data is only as good as your source. If your source is the nypd that has a cop who went on a racist rampage against a black family on vacation that did not get reprimanded.... I think you get my point.
9
@John
If you’re ‘progressive,’ data is racist.
Get with the program, etc.
14
@EGD no, if you’re thoughtful, you’ll remember the old saying: data is like a bikini; it’s what you do not see that counts.
It’s smart to question. I recommend it.
3
We all make mistakes and Bloomberg admitted his. When data showed that "stop and frisk" was not a deterrent to crime he changed and the tactic was allowed to die a merciful death.
New York is the safest large city in the U.S. and that distinction happened without "stop and frisk" and while Bloomberg and de Blasio have been in office.
Bloomberg is no "clown" like Giuliani. As a lifelong stalwart Democrat, I can enthusiastically support Bloomberg against "we know who". I DO NOT require perfection in a candidate.
24
@Richie But it was a deterent.
@Richie
That was just a "mistake" eh?
1
@SD I think we all sometimes go down a wrong path. Continuing Giuliani's "stop & frisk" policy goes on the bad side of Bloomberg's ledger. It takes an intelligent person to admit error and take a different approach. Bloomberg is no autocrat like Giuliani. I want a candidate who can WIN, not necessarily one who checks ALL my boxes.
2
Bloomberg was trying to save lives- minority lives. Look what he has done to fight gun violence. He’s not a racist and anyone trying to credibly claim otherwise is trying to con voters.
Bloomberg is the best candidate and the only one running who can and will beat Trump.
32
According to NYC.gov, the number of murders in NYC was 673 in 2000. It came down to 335 (about half) in 2013 during the stop and frisk era; was still 335 in 2016; down to 295 in 2018; and up again to 318 in 2019. Stop and frisk ended in 2014.
So did it work? I think so.
11
Would you rather have Bloomberg or Trump? I'll support whomever the Democratic party nominates.
Incidentally, I supported stop and frisk. I wish they would do something like that in Los Angeles.
Go Mike!
19
Liberals want guns off the streets, and everyone knows the demographics of the people holding illegal guns. But you don't want the cops to search them, and you don't want the people caught with them to face any jail time. So that gun's not going anywhere until the person holding it kills someone.
6
@KM
White People Stopped By New York Police Are More Likely To Have Guns Or Drugs Than Minorities - AVIVA SHEN - 7 years ago
2
Well I don't approve of the stop-and-frisk program, it was incredibly ineffective, gathering hardly any illegal guns, and it caused the communities to be extremely hostile to police due to constant harassment. I'd say it increased the amount of crime by driving people to be more opposed to society, and causing people to avoid helping the police with investigations.
However, it should be realized that Bloomberg is essentially right about the demographics. According to government statistics (link below), in 2019, murder suspects in NYC were 62.4% Black, 30.8% Hispanic, leaving 6.8% for all other ethnicities. It's unfortunately correct to say the vast majority of violent crime in NYC is carried out by young Black and Hispanic men. Just like all crime, everywhere, is committed by men incredibly much more than by women.
I'm sure in Wyoming nearly all crime is committed by white men, because nearly everyone is white. But there isn't anywhere on earth where women commit more crimes than men, or even come close to men's violent crime rate.
So Bloomberg is not being racist when he says it makes more sense to police Black and Hispanic areas, because that literally is where the majority of violent crime is occurring. It's not being sexist to focus more on men than women either, it's being cognizant of reality.
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_planning/year-end-2019-enforcement-report.pdf
18
Actually, stop & frisk is one of the few things about Bloomberg I like. On this, in my view, he and the NYC Police were absolutely pragmatic and realistic. If the police want to reduce crime, they have to go to where the crimes are occurring and deal with it. Beginning, middle, end of story. They probably could have done a better job of community relations and explaining this policy in Bed Sty and other black neighborhoods. But the policy was correct and seems to be the reason for hugely reduced crime in NYC in this period. What I would like to know from self-appointed black leaders who are anti-stop & frisk is: why would you want to put law-abiding people in these neighborhoods at risk by stopping stop & frisk?
11
@Lotzapappa
Either you believe in the constitution or you do not.
The constitution does not allow you to suspend the 4th Amendment for particular demographics you don't like.
Let's follow the constitution.
Police stopping and questioning someone who meets a particular description or is wanted for a specific crime is fine.
Police stopping and frisking everyone who is Black or Hispanic in order to meet quotas is wrong. White people would NEVER tolerate their children being insulted, assaulted and harassed like that. Black people shouldn't either. Period.
2
Seriously?? Democrats tear each other apart over some position a person held 10 years ago, meanwhile Trump is committing crimes in real time, subverting elections, using the justice department as his own personal cudgel. We need to get over it, pull together and support whom ever wins the nomination!
20
@Barry Henson
We are in the primary either fight and get dirty or get out.
1
As a retired NYPD officer of hispanic descent on patrol in the 80’ & 90’s, I believe that the police departments policy of stop & frisk was an effective tool used to get illegal guns off the street. The politicians who supported it then were correct in doing so. Those who cry foul, pointing to disparate police “profiling” of minorities mislead the public. Crime statistics in minority communities is what created the need for stop and frisk. There is no denying that more black and hispanics got stopped by the police but that was due to the make up of the community where violent armed crimes where being committed. For those so called “tough” New Yorkers who criticize the policy don’t complain when you are looking at a gun being pointed at you and it’s not the police.
383
@Louis R.
And if it was up to this foul billionaire of a Trump variant, I would not be armed to be able to defend my loved-ones or myself if that gun was "bing pointed at" us.
Love,
The True Left
5
@Louis R. unfortunately, your experience or feelings on the matter have no bearing on the effectiveness of it whatsoever. According to the Washington Post fact-checker, the claim that stop-and-frisk contributed to a decline in the crime rate is unsubstantiated. And a 2016 study found no evidence that stop-and-frisk was effective. The facts are that this did not result in fewer gun deaths, nor did it remove a significant proportion of guns from would-be wrong doers.
23
The federal judge ruled it unconstitutional ? You are not an impartial judge of the wrong that was being done. Running roughshod over people of color isn’t justified if it was done by someone of color.
16
I support Mike Bloomberg. What he said about crime in cities is a correct description of the data on crimes. It is concentrated in certain low income neighborhoods and young males are the most common perpetrators. Further lack of safety is a major source of anxiety and depression among city residents of these neighborhoods. What he did, "stop and frisk" is illegal racial profiling. As a public health policy leader, Mr. Bloomberg is a strong proponent of gun control and addressing the root social causes of health disparities. He will implement effective policies to control crime in low income neighborhoods and enhance opportunities and quality of life for neighborhood residents. No other democratic candidate understands these issues as Mike Bloomberg does. No other candidate will implement effective policies. No other candidate can beat Trump .
14
The greater your effort to create change the more likely you will find mistakes or actions that are no longer acceptable. My memory of stop and frisk was that many people appreciated getting guns off the street.
2
Bloomberg was absolutely correct for trying stop and frisk. Every new policy tried by the government is an experiment. It may work, it might not work. Or, we might decide the policy is not worth the costs. Regardless, he is to be commended for being willing to stick his (political) neck out and trying to solve a major problem in today's cities.
6
@Rob-Chemist
How many are in prison or damaged their job opportunities over pot possession or other aspects from such regulation. If you agree fine but it should be applied to whites fairly as well. This is the problem. It was targeted on race.
Whites use pot as much as blacks. Everyone should be frisked, period.
9
To the folks who see no problem with stop and frisk:
Not only did it stigmatize people and neighborhoods, but it resulted in a deepening distrust of police officers. Which meant that detectives had a harder and harder time investigating crimes. That will take a generation to repair.
To those of us white people with Black relatives, it is an eye-opening process to go through customs at the airport or walk through a department store or attend a college admissions fair. I can only say that even to witness it can be horrifying.
19
Sometimes the truth is hard to take and Bloomberg spoke the truth back then. Now he is trying to distance himself from his previous position and it just makes him appear weak and pandering.
6
Bloomberg sought to lower violence in minority neighborhoods. I’m sure many residents appreciated his efforts since they seemed to work. Tactics like this are a mixed bag, effective in the short run but not a just or proper long term solution. As long as he’s now committed to addressing the underlying causes I think he deserves a pass.
6
Trump called for Stop and Frisk to be used nationwide in 2016 and praised the tactics again last year. What is it about this fact those of you losing your minds over Bloomberg don't get!
Michael Bloomberg KNOWS THE ERROR OF HIS WAYS. He will not make the same mistake twice. In November there must be an all-out effort to vote Trump out of office. Bloomberg is best qualified to run against him. Get a grip people. We can't change the past but we certainly can seek a better future by removing Trump and Republicans from office.
12
When Obama was president, I didn't have to worry every single day about who the president was. Obama just went about his business. No drama. I'm hoping for the same with Bloomberg. I'm a white guy in Maine. I'm looking at this from afar, I realize. But New York, the most populous, liberal, and racially diverse city in the nation, elected him three times. I'm a liberal Democrat who would love to see a revolution, as Bernie says. But now's not the time. I'll take a boring centrist in the White House who I don't have to have nightmares about any day of the week.
22
@Michael Part of “going about his business” was building cages for immigrant children on the border, lest you forget.
1
@Michael
These may be little things but if you like guns, soda, cigarettes, marijuana or beer you can expect them to be overly regulated and mega-taxed under Bloomie.
If you think adults need a nanny to up the on tax your lifestyle choices then Mike's the guy for you.
1
"He who is without sin, IS NOT RUNNING!"
And this is how Donald Trump gets another four years and McConnell, Graham and the rest of the GOP walk away with the next election. A woman's right to choose, down the drain. The environment and climate change, gone. Healthcare, life expectancy and consumer protections, poof! The Federal Reserve, an ATM for an administration that has no concept of fiscal responsibility.
Democrats this is how you lose elections! Bloomberg is the only viable candidate so the question I have for every Democrat is which do you prefer, voting for a non-DNC candidate or another four years of President Trump because that is the only question.
7
Sorry but this is a self-destructive distraction. All energy has to go to trumps defeat, downfall and conviction.
6
It is very easy to be against a policy when you live in a safe neighborhood with little violent crime. But residents in lower income neighborhoods not only have to contend with their daily tasks, but also deal with violence in their neighborhood.
Sending police out across the entire city is an enormous waste of resources, send them to the high crime neighborhoods to protect the rights of the citizens there.
A politician that would sacrifice law-abiding minorities to the ravages of crime just to keep a few activists happy is not serving the common good.
Want to address the causes of violent crime (lower incomes, lower education attainment, fewer dual-parent households), by all means to that to. But ignoring crime because the criminals happen to be minority is ludicrous.
5
@James
Straw man much?
No one said ignore crime.
But the "law abiding minorities" of whom you are so solicitous did not and do not appreciate being insulted, stopped, harassed, threatened, and occasionally assaulted on a daily basis by armed agents of the state strutting around in apparent permanent 'roid rage.
Imagine that.
1
It's reasonable to disagree with Bloomberg's stop and frisk policy.
It is not reasonable to think his policy was motivated by racism
He was simply trying to fight crime.
Everyone makes mistakes.
But he gets an A+ on Climate Change and Guns, he built a multi billion dollar company from scratch, led the biggest city in the country and has given away billions of dollars to charity.
Oh, and he'd crush Donald Trump
He's got my vote
503
Everyone makes mistakes? That was rich of you. Tell that to the black law student who was constantly stopped on his way to class. Give Bloomberg a pass if you want but don’t make light of someone else’s pain
44
@John If Bloomberg does manage to buy the nomination, or if billionaire donors select him in a brokered convention, he will have my vote. The imperative to get Trump out of the White House, thereby preserving our constitutional republic, overcomes my misgivings about a billionaire former Republican who championed racist policing.
But I will securely install a clothespin on my nose when I cast my ballot in November, just as I did in 2016.
20
@John Very well said and every word is true, there was nothing racist about his desire to reduce crime and anyone that knows anything about Bloomberg understands this. I was born in New York and can confirm what you say is true.
23
Mike Bloomberg apologized for his stance on "stop and frisk." And I admire him for that! As a NYC native, I can say that Mike Bloomberg was a terrific 3-term Mayor and will do a terrific job as President of the United States. The fact that Bloomberg is using all of his own money speaks volumes as to his concern about the direction Trump is taking us and has said that whoever the Democratic nominee is, he will be sure to move his money in that direction. And by the way, when has Trump, the "stable genius" ever admitted wrong-doing or apologized?
31
This is how the Democratic primary is likely to go: anyone who is enough of a centrist to win over Independents in the 3-4 swing states that will decide the election is not going to be acceptable to the online liberals who tend to dominate the discussion.
And the candidates the "cancel culture" folks find worthy of approval are going to horrify swing voters with promises to abolish ICE, end fracking, and impose trillions of dollars in new taxes to provide healthcare for immigrants. And we now that will mean: four more years of Trumo.
In a perfect world, I would probably vote for Warren. But this is not anything like a perfect world, and I can't see Warren (or Sanders) winning Pennsylvania and ousting Trump. Of the more centrist candidates who could carry the swing states, Bloomberg has the most going for him and the best chance of winning, IMO. And, unlike some of the others, he has enough experience to be an excellent president.
I understand that many will disagree. Maybe for you, 'stop and frisk' is a deal breaker, and I can respect that. But whatever you do, please think hard about the alternative: four more years of Trump.
I like Bloomberg, and I hope his past mistakes will be weighed in context of the many other things he got right and what he's pledging to do if elected. And meanwhile I will pledge to vote for whoever the Democrat nominee turns out to be.
50
@Joe M. This is all Monday morning quarterbacking. Look at NYC since DeBlasio took over, its a mess, things don't work and two cops were ambushed this weekend. Ask the families of the fallen officers how they feel.
2
@Joe M. Excellent comments. Thank you.
1
@AusTex It's not Monday morning quarterbacking to say what you think will happen with various Democratic nominees before the nominee is chosen. And it seems rather unfair to blame Bloomberg for a tragic crime that occurred more than six years after he was last in office. Not sure how things look from Austin, but most people who lived in NYC during Bloomberg's tenure will say the life in the city was significantly improved under his leadership.
1
Polls conducted in 2012 indicated that the public was generally in favor of stop and frisk. To be sure a lot of people, around 40%, were opposed, but as another comment noted, NYC generally has a liberal leaning population and to get 55% support for what appears to be his most controversial policy, seems pretty good. But not for nothing, he apologized for defending it and said it was wrong.
33
@Scott M The problem with stop and frisk in NYC was that as it became less effective in getting runs off the streets over time, instead of finding a new tactic, they just kept increasing the stops. Most of the male members of gangs stopped carrying guns and had girls or younger boys carry for them.Those gang members weren't stupid, they knew they would be stopped by cops, so they found other ways to keep the guns nearby. The NYPD should have adapted rather than constantly increasing the now failing policy. The question was whether Bloomberg forced them to keep stopping or the NYPD brass was behind the increases.
5
I am a New Yorker who never voted for Bloomberg. In his defense, one could write that he is an oligarch who has advocated for gun control and for measures to stem global warming.
Truly, he was never a friend of public education favoring charter schools, including for profit ones, often to the detriment of public schools. I am happy that this audio has been brought up as it shows that his approach to public safety not only reeked of racism, but I must add it was also rather ineffectual.
Of late, he has been duplicitous in his campaign ads on reducing stop and frisk, public education and healthcare. Reduction in the last years of his administration of stop and frisk was in the face of legal action I wonder if his claims of expansion of children and adults getting health insurance has more to do with the CHIP program and with the ACA than his administration's actions.
Claiming to put reducing in inequality is just too rich coming from him.
19
@Arthur And who did the charter schools benefit? Neighborhoods of color where the schools were, and still are failing. Those schools gave whole neighborhoods hope and have mostly succeeded where the NYBOE schools have failed. So, which is better DeBlaisio's still failing city schools or the successful charters favored by Bloomberg?
5
He and his money are making bigger fools out of "Democrats" then y'all are doing on your own.
It's fun watching all of the nominal "liberals" out there tussle with themselves publicly over this foul Trump variant.
Love,
The True Left
15
@SD I wold say he is the anti-trump. I think/hope any sensible person would/will.
@Bjh
You keep telling yourself that...
Blunt? It is racist. Bloomberg is a racist. He was a racist while he was in office and the New York Times, New York Daily News, and New York Post trumpeted his behavior and policies. In time all these papers will be indicted via public opinion for their myopic and racist white liberal paternalistic spin on what was actually happening on the ground in places such as Flatbush, Bed-Stuy, and Jamaica Queens just to name a few places where the NYPD was given the right to violate the 4th Amendment rights of African Americans.
Bloomberg is not going to become president. People like myself will not allow it. Black men like myself who were awarded millions of dollars due to Stop and Frisk.
73
@Jonathan Enjoy four more years of Trump.
21
Dear Jonathan,
Sorry, but it is not racist to say that most violent crime in NYC is committed by young men who are Black and Latino. In nearly every category, over 90% of suspects are Black and Latino. Societal racism is what produces this ratio, non-whites are discriminated against and are pushed into poverty, poverty causes desperation, desperate people turn to crime. But it makes sense to focus police activity on majority Black and Latino areas because that's where the violent crime is.
This isn't a pro-white stance either, because it applies to Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans too. It's just going by statistics, just as in Idaho one would assume crimes would be committed mostly by white people, because nearly everyone there is white.
21
@Jonathan He is not a racist, his policy, on its face may seem racist, but it was enacted to protect people of color. And if you think his assessment of who was committing crimes back when he was mayor is wrong, then you need to educate yourself on crime statistics of the period. Crime was mostly Black-on-black with most shootings being black-on-black, whether you were in Detroit, Baltimore or NYC. Was the policy a correct one? Maybe in the beginning, but definitely not in the end.
11
This is the beginning - the hardcore beginning, of the Bash Bloomberg phase.
Bloomberg is the only one of these candidates that Trump is really afraid of. Bloomberg can turn Trump's lights out!
Was stop and frisk the best public policy? Perhaps not.
Is Donald J. Trump a vile and corrupt human who pollutes everything, everyone and every institution he touches? Yes, without reservation he is.
So you decide if you need perfection and are willing to wait for it. Or if you, like me, need Trump gone so we can get our country back.
375
@Clearwater Trump is very clearly afraid of Bernie Sanders. He was caught on the Lev Parnas tape saying he was worried about Bernie as Hillary’s VP pick. Also, Mike Bloomberg himself said Bernie would’ve swept against Trump.
21
@Clearwater There's plenty to bash Bloomberg with. Let all the stuff out so voters can scrutinze him. If Bloomberg thought he'd be able to sashay into the WH without a hard like at his troubling record of ignoring Constitutional norms (also see mass arrests of lawful protestors at 2004 Republican convention), he was just jolted back to reality.
14
@Clearwater If you support oppressing minorities as part of a strategy to defeat Trump, guess who the vile and corrupt human actually is?
19
Think about how much good all the money he has spent to sabotage the DEM selection process, could do for the victims and families of Stop & Frisk.
If he really meant it he would have done so long ago.
13
@magicisnotreal Sabotage the Democratic selection process. You act as if these are all your votes. These votes don't belong to you, they don't belong to anyone except the voters. What arrogance!
Stop with the Bloomberg bashing. The current Democratic field is a joke - with zero chance of defeating Trump. Bloomberg has unlimited resources, intelligence, experience and the toughness to do it. Bloomberg is our only chance to restore sanity. Leave him alone.
293
@Diana People of color will not vote for Bloomberg with his history. He will lose if he is the democratic nominee.
23
@Diana
Sorry. That defense won't fly here in NYC.
Bloomberg deserves every bit of criticism and scrutiny coming his way.
24
@Diana
Yes.
In order for Democrats to win the WH is to sell-out.
6
This will continue to dog Bloomberg, as it should.
Makes Buttigieg look good by comparison...(ugh)
11
I know this paper is familiar with James Carville, who says that the only thing on the lips of Democrats should be the defeat of the president, and nothing else.
40
And crime rates went down. Fast forward to de Blasio, and crime rates are up. No bail for crimes less than murder or rape. If you don't want the cops bugging you, don't be doing anything that look like the cops need to bug you. If minorities commit the most crimes, then minorities will be adversely affected by a policy meant to discourage criminal activity.
45
@Midwest Josh
So, we're all supposed to walk around LOOKING innocent?
Ridiculous.
The right of the people to be secure in their PERSONS, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. (4th Amendment)
15
@Midwest Josh
Crime rates continued to decline after Bloomberg left office and after "stop and frisk" was halted by court intervention. Although there has been an uptick in shootings in the last couple on months, crime is still lower than when Bloomberg left office.
3
Is it racist to look at data and state what the data is telling you? If the data was telling you that more crime occurred in this part of a city, wouldn't it be negligent to ignore the statistics and not to try to target the problem? Now, of course, it is how you deal with the data, but in the world today even stating the facts, is politically incorrect and racist.
122
@Lorry the data was collected based on police reports and arrests premised on a massively institutionally racist system with stereotypes baked in in every way. Many people consider people of color more “suspicious” or likely to be criminals, so they call the police on POC more often. Police arrest them more often. Police go looking in minority neighborhoods for crime more often.
Even in poorer neighborhoods, the data shows us people of color are targeted by police more often than white people with the same living situation.
16
@David S. I believe he was referring to homicide stats. Police don't choose whether to count a homicide like they can for minor level drug offenses. As racist as you may believe the NYPD to be they can't fudge murder stats.
1
Statistically, the profile may be true, but that begs the question is throwing them up against a wall (ah, walls!) the most effective solution, or does it contribute to the bitterness and anger of a suppressed segment of the population? The mind set that wants to pursue law and order by overt punishing tactics will turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom. More police, more overcrowded prisons, a revolving door court system where justice can be likened to the sun in winter, is the more likely result. And I hate to say it, but it's typical rich guy thinking. "Get those people out of the way of business as usual, and, by the way, no sleeping on the streets."
No thanks, Mike.
10
There was never much doubt that Mike Bloomberg's "Stop and Frisk" policing policy would come back to haunt him.
As well it should, since it operated under the most racist of pretenses that all, if not most crime was being perpetrated by young men of color -- no matter where they lived in NYC.
But perhaps the most egregious part of this flawed reasoning is that Mr. Bloomberg somehow thinks that by making some generic apology to the Black community, it's going to make everything alright -- and this only coming at a time when he made the decision to run again for higher office where the votes of the Latino and African-American community would count.
Of course New Yorkers have a far more critical view of Michael R. Bloomberg, starting but not ending with his unprecedented third term as Mayor and the fact that during his tenure the city became increasingly impossible to afford.
Fine.
He's got loads of money and he'll give Donald Trump a run for his money, but right now his biggest challenge will be proving that he can get that far.
16
This is a non-story being paraded as a story by Sanders/Warren supporters. Bloomberg supported stop and frisk, and has since apologized and said he was wrong. End of story. No news here.
And for that matter, his bottom line goal was getting guns out of the hands of kids to prevent them from getting hurt - doesn't seem like an objectionable goal to most rational human beings.
113
@CC it is news. Wether Bloomberg was right or wrong it needs to be talked about. The stop and frisk, the crime, the mayor, the police, the neighborhood, the unemployment.. It all needs to be talked about it it is going to start to be better.
7
@CC if Bernie's ideas and policies are so popular pure and aligned with what working people and the middle class want then he will beat Bloomberg and get the nomination. Let the voters see both sides Bernie's no underdog anymore and should welcome having Bloomberg on the debate stage to challenge his policies. If people hate billionaires (Steyer has never broken 3%) Bloomberg's campaign will fizzle. What are you afraid of Bernie supporters?
2
Please stop the PC hysteria for a minute and really think about this. I refer to stop-and-frisk as targeted policing. Sounds pretty smart to me. Target the group of individuals we KNOW are responsible for a particular crime. It would be a crime to do anything else.
41
I volunteered for Mike Bloomberg‘s third mayoral effort and was on the stage the night he declared victory. His opening statement was,”First of all I want to thank the women in my life. I’ve just come from my mother’s bedside and we had a glass of champagne to celebrate.”
He went on to thank the other people who had helped him.
I volunteered for him because of what he had done for education in the five boroughs of New York. Having come from New Jersey where education is woefully ignored, I felt New York’s kids were getting a much better shake.
I’m not black or brown, I don’t drive so I can’t speak to stop and frisk. What I can say is Michael Bloomberg is an adult who runs a huge company, is self-made, puts his money where his priorities are, has made mistakes, like the rest of us, and has owned one of them.
I’m looking forward to voting for him.
191
I love how the liberal media are always first in line to destroy any of the DEM candidates. They pounce and punch and kick, do all the oppo research for GOP, and once eventually the DEM nominee loses in the general election, the liberal media start again screaming about how bad the Republican President is and how important it is to defeat him.
32
Nothing a half a billion dollars of ads can't fix.
12
According to the article, Bloomberg left office in 2013. In 2015, the judicial system barred “stop and frisk.”
7
Bloomberg gave the city to the developers and most New Yorkers had grown tired of him. Everybody knows his coming to Jesus moment on Stop and Frisk is aimed at getting the black vote. We are not naive and see the game as it is unfolding. BUT! Trump is so detested that any one running against him is going to be supported. Bloomberg needs to tell us what he would do different now after his epiphany.
12
Can't wait to read all the centrist comments decrying "purity politics" around this recording.
The only issue the modern Democratic party really cares about is abortion. Everything else--racial minorities, entitlements, peace, even gun control--is on the table.
7
With the views he had at the time, he was elected three times to be mayor of the nation’s largest city, and a liberal one at that. It therefore seems that those views must have been in sync with a big chunk of the populace , even a majority. So what’s the story here?
249
@Mark because someone was elected before seems irrelevant to any reasoning for why they should be elected. Your view follows the same logic as :
George Bush was elected twice to the largest nation in North America, a more democrat than republican one at that. It therefore seems that invading Iraq must have been in sync with a big chunk of the populace, even a majority. So what's the story here?
Please explain your rhetoric.
30
Not really, because he bought the third election, and maybe the others too.
23
@Mark
The story here is that it hurt a lot of people, and it stigmatized a lot of neighborhoods. Bloomberg hung on to this strategy long after is was discredited and only after a court order.
Just because Bloomberg may have reflected the racism of a lot of New Yorkers doesn't make it right.
55
Mainstream media's obsession with Bloomberg and his unchecked attempt at flooding the airwaves with his money, to the tune of many hundreds of millions of dollars is finally being questioned. Unfortunately, you folks aren't doing yourselves any favors elsewhere by calling the people on social media all kinds of names (e.g., Chuck Todds' virulent name calling of Bernie supporters on national TV).
But many questions remain about Bloomberg, not the least of which is, why is Steve Rattner, a man who manages Bloomberg's hedge funds, being called as a surrogate for Bloomberg in MSNBC and CNN?
When are you folks in the media going to question Bloomberg's rather naked attempt at buying the election?
And also please educate me about why Bloomberg is not an oligarch.
65
@FurthBurner the best way to beat Trump is to excite the base and bring in independents. We do this with unabashed moral clarion and a break from corrupt politics as normal. Bernie Sanders is the answer. He stands for everything Trump is against.
12
@FurthBurner Every politician tries to buy their election. Bloomberg just happens to be different in that he does not have to go begging for money due to his ability to come up with good ideas and hire smart people. These characteristics sound like those we would like to have in our President.
9
@FurthBurner He's not buying anything. He still needs people to vote for him to win.
12
A difficult topic and one that will certainly follow Bloomberg. I do truly believe that Bloomberg is not a racist and those looking for atonement from him then the best place to seek that is with him as President and what he can do for the nation.
37
@A Centrist
Typical.
Bloomberg gets a pass from the hypocritical NYTimes readership.
If Trump said "throw them up against the wall and frisk them".................it would be propagated by the media as the newest "Bombshell" and proof of Trump's "racism".
Just as Bloomberg's anti-woman comments are brushed aside as just "Mike being Mike".
15
@John
And the dog that didn't bark is the missing article in the NYT (although well covered elsewhere) about Joe Biden's "lying dog faced pony soldier" quote. But of course, he was 'just joking' anyway.
5
Maybe he really is the best candidate to appeal to the Trump voter.
64
The Trump voter is not voting for anyone but Trump. Why are Democrats so focused on that? Democrats should focus on their voters and independents. Forget Trump voters — they’re in a cult and need some serious deprogramming.
20
@BKLYNJ we shouldn’t beat Republicans by becoming them.
10
@BKLYNJ maybe because he's a republican....
1
Boom! So much for racial profiling, so much for the 4th amendment; and, after Super Tuesday - so much for Bloomburg.
19
Stop and frisk does not implicate the Fourth Amendment. Terry v. Ohio was decided half a century ago.
5
@Steve
Lawyers on the head of a pin.
https://www.factcheck.org/2016/09/is-stop-and-frisk-unconstitutional/
3
In the recent Democratic debate, Mayor Pete defended his record of increasing marijuana arrests, which disproportionately impacted black people, by claiming that they were the result of targeting gang and violent crimes.
That is EACTLY the same policy rationale as Bloomberg's defense of stop and frisk.
68
@Bill Wolfe Indeed. Neither should be our nominee.
11
Majority of those who support Stop & Frisk, has never experience the humiliation of the policy. I have on more than occasion simply walking or simply waiting for the bus on the streets of New York. Thing was, the Cops never approached you as Cops. On two occasion, standing at the Bus Stop, car w/tinted windows creep by, slowly letting a window down. My first thought mistaken ID driveby shooting. On another occasion 3 Blk Male approached, pants sagging, I thought I was about to be the victim of a Crime, turned out they were Cops, though at no time during these encounters did they ID themselves as Cops. One defensive moved to protect myself & I could have been dead, arrested or assaulted. This is a reality of Stop & Frisk. I voted for Mr Bloomberg when he first ran for Mayor. He presented himself as he is now. No matter how distasteful the current POTUS is. As a registered Independent Voter, I could not in clear conscious Vote for Mr Bloomberg again, no matter the office he is running for. There's a Freedom of Choice when voting & there's also the freedom of choice to not vote.
60
@Neil James
Thank you for your "I was there" comment, I had no idea that 'stop & frisk' was being performed by men in street clothes who did not ID themselves. That is really scary.
12
@Neil James You experienced firsthand a policy that was discriminatory and demeaning. Bloomberg made a bad decision and stuck with it for a long time. However, he has apologized and it is highly likely that he will go out of his way (should he get elected) to compensate for the harm he caused. The alternative appears to be allowing the demented dictator 4 more years. Nothing is worth that risk! An African American grandmother wrote in a previous post that if Bloomberg is on the ticket she will hold her nose and vote for him. We are in danger of destroying our chances in our quest for perfection.
12
@Neil James
That's terrifying, I'm really sorry you had to deal with that.
If Bloomberg wins the nomination, I will vote third party. We don't need to sell out all of our principles to win. This is an easy choice for me since the Electoral College has made my vote for President useless. Those who live in swing states will have a much harder decision to make.
6
It is incredibly disturbing that Bloomberg has risen to number 3 mainly through advertising.
People should make no mistake about who this man really is, from this recording and his full record as mayor. He is someone who always believes he knows the most, and will ignore anyone who questions him. He is an absolute narcissist, just like DJT, though his values tend to support the care of others. He couldn't handle union negotiations, because that would require compromise, so local NYC gov employees went years without contracts when he was mayor.
Here he is in this recording saying, again, that he knows what's wrong and how to fix it--with no consideration for the lives of others. Why do people think the poor in NY have no where to go? Bloomberg tore up the land and gave it to the rich to build hideous profit vehicles that stand half empty.
What happened to the taxi industry? Bloomberg did, and he ruined the lives of dozens and dozens of hard-working people.
All this, and more, in addition to his purchasing of a place on the ballot, and then outspending everyone else (because he knows that he's the best one for the job) is the reason that I can say with certainty that, if he's on the ballot, I won't be voting this year.
Grow some principles democrats
41
"never approached you as a cop"
I've been stopped and frisked as a teen and young adult in Detroit. The police always approached me as a cop.
The police never approached anyone else as cops? That's a strong and false statement.
4