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Bloomberg Continues Tone-Deaf Support Of Stop-And-Frisk Policy
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 18, 2012
Modified May 18, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published May 18, 2012
Modified May 18, 2012
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Yesterday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly promised more scrutiny and oversight for the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk policy, outlining several changes to the policy in memos to the NYPD and City Council. But as far as Mayor Bloomberg is concerned, everything is working just fine, and there's nothing controversial about stop-and-frisk, and he can't hear any complaints nah nah nah: "We're going to keep doing this...We're not going to walk away from tactics that work and we're not going to walk away from bringing crime down," he said on his radio show this morning.
Bloomberg barely mentioned any of the policy changes Kelly brought up this week in the wake of a federal judge granting class-action status to a lawsuit against the NYPD. (The lawsuit claims the practice violates the constitutional rights of blacks and Hispanics.) Instead, Bloomberg echoed statements he made at a press conference on Wednesday, during which he dismissed critics as a vocal minority and directed his ire toward the media.
"This is a program that is effective," the mayor said this morning. "People say there is a divide between the public and the police. There may be a divide between some of the public and the police, but the divide that is no longer there is that you used to not be able to walk the streets of this city and today you walk every neighborhood during the day and most neighborhoods at night."
The Daily News seems to agree with Bloomberg—they published two pieces today in favor of stop-and-frisk. In one, columnist Mike Lupica calls stop-and-frisk an "imperfect" policy that works for an imperfect city. The other focuses on Judge Shira Scheindlin's opinion on the lawsuit, claiming it could send the city back to the bad old days: "This is extreme and perilous judicial overreaching. Based on nothing more, really, than numbers and an academic opinion that suited her beliefs, Scheindlin has moved menacingly toward restricting the NYPD’s tactics."
They also sound the alarm for what the future in NYC might look like:
You think rising cell phone thefts are bad? Wait till car thefts soar back over 100,000 a year. Wait till you start hearing about mushrooms and learn that the word refers to children who have been struck by stray bullets.
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bloomberg
mayor bloomberg
nypd
police
Ray Kelly
stop and frisk
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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