Giuliani hits Bloomberg on stop-and-frisk: He’s ‘turned on the program’
President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, criticized Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Sunday for walking back his stance on the controversial stop-and-frisk policy that was used during his tenure.
“What is this stuff that he’s condemning stop-and-frisk?” Giuliani rhetorically asked radio show host John Catsimatidis. “I did it for eight years. He did it for 12. I did 100 [thousand] stops. He did 600 [thousand].”
“Now that [Bloomberg] has turned on the program, and turned on [Ray] Kelly… He was 100 percent in favor of that program. As enthusiastic about it as I was,” Giuliani added.
Bloomberg succeeded Giuliani as New York City’s mayor in 2002. At the time, Bloomberg ran as a Republican and Giuliani endorsed him.
Stop-and-frisk, a law enforcement practice that disproportionally targeted communities of color in New York, was stopped at the end of Bloomberg’s mayoral tenure in 2013. The courts ruled that the policy violated the constitutional rights of minorities in the city.
On Saturday, during a campaign event in Richmond, Va., Bloomberg apologized for his prior stance on the policy and promised supporters that, as president, he would “dismantle systems that are plagued by bias and discrimination.”
“I should have acted sooner, and I should have stopped it, and I didn’t, and I apologize that for that,” he said at a campaign event in Richmond.
“I’ve listened to their stories. I’ve heard their pain, and their confusion, and their anger, and I’ve learned from them and I’ve grown from them,” he added.
Bloomberg’s stance on the policy has been in the spotlight since remarks he made about the policy in 2015 came to light this week.
At the time, the former mayor defended the policy and described the practice as throwing kids of color “up against the walls” and frisking them.
He also said that “95 percent” of “murders and murderers and murder victims” are male minorities between the ages of 16 to 25.
“It was five years ago,” Bloomberg said when asked about his comments on Thursday. “And, you know, it’s just not the way that I think and it … doesn’t reflect what I do every day. I led the most populous, largest city in the United States and got reelected three times, the public seemed to like what I do.”
–This report was updated at 11:00 a.m.
John Catsimatidis is an investor of The Hill.
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