Pataki: Stop and Frisk Saved Thousands of Lives

Former New York Gov. George Pataki Tuesday came out in defense of the stop and frisk policy of the New York Police Department, pointing to the lives that it's saved.

"The effect of the policy is thousands of lives that are saved, largely low-income, minority lives, because we have much lower rates of violent crime," the Republican said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."


On Monday, Federal Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled the stop and frisk tactics employed by police unconstitutional, calling it a policy that leads to "indirect racial profiling."

The ruling came in response to lawsuits claiming the policy was biased against African-Americans and Hispanics.

Pataki complained that the ruling would place "some Wall Street lawyer" in an overseer position to monitor the stop and frisk program who doesn't have the experience to substitute his judgment for a cop who's been walking a dangerous beat for 20 years.

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Reacting to claims that the stop and frisk program has only been used primarily in low-income and minority communities, Pataki agreed with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Policy Commissioner Ray Kelly that, "You go where the crime is if you want to stop the crime."

"It is, I think, a tribute to this mayor and police department that we are putting so much of our police emphasis in low-income neighborhoods, in high-crime neighborhoods," he added said.

Republican mayoral candidate Joe Llota also defended the law, saying, "Basically, this judge has put every great thing that's happened in New York City over the last 20 years at risk."

"Officers can still stop and frisk, but they're going to be handcuffed in how they do it," Llota said Tuesday on "Fox & Friends."