Bloomberg: Stop-and-Frisk Works as ‘Deterrent’
Thursday, May 10, 2012 - 03:33 PM
Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered a spirited defense of the New York Police Department’s use of stop-and-frisk on Thursday, saying “stops are a deterrent.” It comes a day after an analysis of NYPD data by the NYCLU showed police targeted blacks and Latinos for stop-and-frisks.
“The NYCLU says the number of stops is great than the number of guns recovered,” the mayor said. “That's the point, they don't get it. Stops are a deterrent. It's the same reason we set up DWI stop points."
Additionally, the analysis found that in 70 of 76 precincts, blacks and Latinos comprised more than half of the stops, even in precincts where they only represented 14 percent or less of the population.
Bloomberg said this is an issue that goes around and around. He said the fact is the streets are safer now. “This city used to be one of the crime capitals. We used to have more than 2,000 murders a year. Over the past ten years we have cut crime another 30 percent...90 percent of the murder victims in this city are black and Hispanic.”
He added he hopes that whoever becomes the next mayor builds on what his administration did “because I plan in living in this city.”
Jessie Wright-Mendoza contributed reporting
Comments [2]
Pre-emptively locking up anybody who looks like they might commit a crime would be a deterrent as well.
It just wouldn't be fair or legal.
And neither is Bloomberg's policy.
It is a deterrent. It deters the community from trusting the police. It deters thinking of a proper and
sound policy and it deters NYC citizens from their civil liberties. Look at the numbers that the NYCLU's analysis is exposing regarding the confiscation of guns vs. the amount
of citizens stopped. It is clear we need to think of a better way.
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