Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is heard, in a newly-surfaced recording from a 2015 speech, defending “stop and frisk,” the controversial policing procedure.
The speech was made in February 2015 at the Aspen Institute. Newsweek said the audio clip of the speech was posted online by Benjamin Dixon. He is described by Newsweek as a podcaster and progressive activist.
Newsone, an African-American news website, called Bloomberg’s comments “racist.” And Fox News said his remarks could damage his status with minority voters as his campaign for president heats up.
"Ninety-five percent of murders, murderers and murder victims fit one M.O.,” Bloomberg is heard saying. “You can just take a description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16-25. That's true in New York, that's true in virtually every city (inaudible). And that's where the real crime is. You've got to get the guns out of the hands of people that are getting killed.”
In a report on the speech in Feb. 16, 2015, The Aspen Times said Bloomberg had maintained: “These kids think they’re going to get killed anyway because all their friends are getting killed. “So they just don’t have any long-term focus or anything. It’s a joke to have a gun. It’s a joke to pull a trigger.”
Bloomberg said one method to deal with the issue to “throw them up against the wall and frisk them.”
“If you can stop them from getting murdered, I would argue everything else you do is less important,” he said.