Activists and political leaders attack the former mayor, describing his “apologies as politically necessary” for his presidential ambitions.
After the apologies offered by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for the intensification of the criminal prevention plan known as ‘stop and frisk’ during his term, which has been described as a “Uniformed War against Black Communities and Latinas in the Big Apple ”, organizations, activists and local political leaders, generated a storm of criticism against those who appear in the race for the White House.
“You forgive many for questioning the apologies, with a decade of delay, and on the eve of a presidential campaign. It is not enough to erase the legacy of systemic abuses of stopping, asking and registering people whose lives were harmed by police excess, ”reacted the Ombudsman of the Big Apple Jumaane Williams.
The official recalled that just earlier this year, the former New York mayor defended this police strategy, which according to calculations of the Civil Liberties Union, during Bloomberg’s administration against the Mayor’s Office between 2001 and 2013, was radicalized by multiplying Seven times your application.
“This was one of the many tactics applied by the Bloomberg Administration that had a detrimental impact on the criminalization of New Yorkers, low-income and communities of color, as well as housing and education,” Williams argued.
And even some sectors of the same Uniformed did not take apologies seriously. The president of the New York City Patrolmen Benevolent Association (PBA), Patrick Lynch, said that “Mayor Bloomberg could have saved this apology if he had heard the officers on the street.
“.Lynch, who also maintains a strong opposition to the handling of the Uniformed by the current administration, recalled that in the early 2000s, emphasized that you are stops street, were contaminating the relationship between the police and communities.
“The wrong policy of that administration inspired a movement against the police that has made them the target of hatred and violence,” Lynch emphasized.
A key issue
Meanwhile, Reverend Al Sharpton, president and founder of the National Action Network organization, expressed his “joy” because now Bloomberg acknowledges that this policy was incorrect, at a time when President Trump is asking to “stop and register nationwide”.
Sharpton added that the former mayor “should be pointed to the same standards as we judge Joe Biden, the author of the Crime Act of 1994, which led to a disproportionate number of black and Latino men who went to jail for years. So, like Senator Bernie Sanders, who voted in favor of that law. ”
‘stop and frisk became a key issue in the Mayor’s campaign in 2013. The then candidate Bill de Blasio, promised to undo the hard-handed police tactics of the Bloomberg Administration, who in reaction defended the plan by cape and sword , and considered criticism as a “political spectacle,” as it was his main tactic to deal with crime.
And the current Mayor also stepped out to the apologies of his predecessor, warning “he only did it, due to his interests in the highest office in the nation. It’s like an apology, on the deathbed, ”de Blasio ironized.
Different analysts also let their opinions heard on Monday about the controversial issue. Charles Blow, a renowned New York Times columnist, said the presidential candidate “needed” to apologize. He also wondered if black voters should think: “Is Bloomberg the antidote to what affects the United States in terms of race and criminal justice, or is it one of its vectors?”
In a speech at the Christian Cultural Center, a black church in Brooklyn, Bloomberg said last Sunday that “I have come to understand something that I had trouble admitting. I did not understand, at one point, the impact that these stops were having on black and Latino communities. However, today I want you to know, that I realized I was wrong, and I’m sorry. ”
‘Stop and frisk’ in 3 keys
This is a crime prevention strategy that had been a staple of the police throughout the United States, for more than 30 years, before Bloomberg took office.
An officer should have discretion and a “reasonable belief” that the person is, has been or is about to be involved in a crime.
If police officers believe that the detainee is armed, an officer can conduct a frisking by running his hands over the person’s outer garments.
It was Bloomberg in numbers:
2002 was the beginning of the Bloomberg era in NYC, which coincided with a dramatic expansion in the application of stopping and registering, according to the Civil Liberties Union.
90% of those reviewed and detained in these operations belonged to African-American and Hispanic communities, according to official data.
5,081,689 people were stopped and registered during the Bloomberg administration.
685,724 operations of this type were reported in 2011, being the year where it reached its highest levels.
14 out of every 10,000 stops made during the Bloomberg era detected a weapon.
76% decreased selective revisions in NYC during the administration of Di Blasio, at the same time, the crime fell to levels not seen since the 1950s.
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