As Michael Bloomberg considers a run for president, the former mayor of New York City admits he “got something important wrong.”
“I want you to know that I realized back then I was wrong and I'm sorry,” Bloomberg said at a church service in Brooklyn on Sunday.
Bloomberg was a fierce supporter of stop and frisk during his 12 years in office and had continued to defend the policy in the years since. Now, he admits it was a mistake.
“I got something important wrong. I got something important really wrong. I didn't understand that back then the full impact that stops were having on the black and Latino communities,” Bloomberg said.
Millions of people were stopped during his three terms in office, including several years where there were more than 500,000 stops.
“This is LONG overdue and the timing is transparent and cynical,” Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted. “With all due respect to my predecessor, we’ve spent six years undoing the damage he created with this bankrupt policy. We ended stop and frisk AND drove down crime.”
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