Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg publicly claimed that cops across the country could use a “Xerox” description of minorities to identify suspected murderers in a newly unearthed recording of a speech from 2015.
“Ninety-five percent of murders, murderers and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take a description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops,” Bloomberg told the Aspen Institute in 2015.
“They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city (inaudible).”
Bloomberg — who apologized for stop-and-frisk last year, shortly before becoming a Democratic candidate for president — said that “one of the unintended consequences is people say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.’”
“Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in minority neighborhoods. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is,” he said.
The billionaire media mogul tried to justify the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk — which was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge — by claiming, “You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of people that are getting killed.”
“And the way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them … And then they start … ‘Oh, I don’t want to get caught,’ so they don’t bring the gun. They still have a gun, but they leave it at home.”
He also suggested that the ends of stop-and-frisk justified the means.
“If you can stop them from getting murdered, I would argue everything else you do is less important,” he added.
The revelation of Bloomberg’s remarks led a co-chair of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign, Nina Turner, to call for him to “drop out of the race,” Axios reported.
The other billionaire seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, Tom Steyer, also criticized Bloomberg’s use of “racist stereotypes,” calling it “extremely disturbing.”
President Trump tweeted, “WOW, BLOOMBERG IS A TOTAL RACIST!” along with a link to the recording, but the tweet was deleted within minutes of being posted Tuesday morning.
In a statement, Bloomberg said, “This issue and my comments about it do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity.”
He also said that “I inherited the police practice of stop-and-frisk, and as part of our effort to stop gun violence it was overused. By the time I left office, I cut it back by 95% but I should’ve done it faster and sooner.”
Statistics show the greatest reduction during his administration came during 2013, the same year that then-Manhattan federal Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled against stop and frisk.
The recording of Bloomberg’s remarks began circulating on Twitter after being featured in Tuesday’s episode of “The Benjamin Dixon Show,” a podcast.
Shortly after Bloomberg gave the speech, his representatives asked the Aspen Institute to not distribute video of his appearance and it agreed, the Aspen Times reported at the time.
In November, Bloomberg offered an apology for stop-and-frisk at one of the city’s largest, predominantly black churches.
“Today, I want you to know that I realize back then I was wrong, and I am sorry,” he told worshippers at the Christian Cultural Center in East New York.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump repeatedly ridiculed Bloomberg over his mea culpa, saying, “I watched him pander at a church and practically beg for forgiveness.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that Bloomberg’s apology “was only for getting votes, and I think probably people understand that.”
He also said Bloomberg “looked pathetic,” adding: “Our country doesn’t need that kind of leadership.”
Additional reporting by Steven Nelson