On Thursday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized Donald Trump for his assertion that expanding the “stop-and-frisk” practice would help end violence in black communities. Under the policy, which Trump said has worked “incredibly well” in New York City, police would be able to stop an individual they deem suspicious and pat them down. De Blasio said Trump might be a bit naive to think this will work.
New York City had in fact been using the stop-and-frisk policy, but after protests from residents, a federal judge made a ruling in 2013 that the policy violated citizens’ constitutional rights. Trump seems to believe the practice worked perfectly in New York City to help crack down on violence. But de Blasio told CNN this plan would cause more harm than good:
“Donald Trump talks about stop-and-frisk like he knows the facts. He should really be careful because if we reinstituted stop-and-frisk all over this country, you’d see a lot more tension between police and communities.”
Trump’s recent stop-and-frisk proposal was a blip of the ol’ Trump flashing out while he’s trying to garner the black vote. He has visited a number of black churches in the past week and even invited Don King to introduce him. De Blasio believes it’s easy for Trump to say a policy will work, but he believes the Republican presidential nominee doesn’t understand the neighborhoods he wants to implement the policy in and the repercussions it will have:
“Trump doesn’t understand the communities he’s talking about. He’s a pampered billionaire. He has no connection to the people he’s talking about. He has no experience in the black community or any other inner city community. He has had no experience with policing, no experience with public safety.”
De Blasio has pledged his support for Hillary Clinton, so some may just see this as an attack on Trump, but he told CNN stop-and-frisk alone wasn’t really what solved the crime problem in New York City. He pinpoints to former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s “systematic and strategic” approach to policing that helped cut down crime. And even now, stops by police in the city are dropping dramatically. The New York Daily News reported New York City would see 20,000 stops this year, as opposed to the record high of 685,700 that occurred in 2011. Trump may want to go back to the drawing board on this.
(Via CNN & The New York Daily News)
