New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg continued to defend the city’s controversial “stop-and-frisk” program Monday, but admitted he might feel differently if he had a son who was targeted by the program.
“I think if I had a son and that son was stopped, I would have some real questions about it.” Bloomberg said when asked about the policy at a press conference detailing the largest gun bust in the city’s history.
“Having said that, I think that if I thought long and hard about it–I actually thought that Bill Thompson said it right,” he continued. “Bill Thompson said he didn’t like stop and frisk but he had a son he wanted to make sure the kid didn’t get killed, and the only way you should do that is to get guns off the streets.”
It’s not the first time that Bloomberg has defended his stop and frisk policy by arguing that it saves lives, but Rev. Sharpton continued to refute that claim on Monday’s show. He pointed to the statistics that show that from 2002 to 2012, the period over which stop and frisk was instituted in New York City, the murder rate fell by 29%. Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, cities without the stop and frisk policy, the murder rate over those periods fell by 66% and 55%, respectively.
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