Time for a buyout
Bloomberg should take his billions and go home
Just when you thought the Democratic presidential field couldn’t get anymore pathetic, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg enters the race representing everything the Democratic Party supposedly stands against.
Billionaire capitalist? Check. Frisking
A white elitist using his hefty bank account to buy his way into a presidential election? Check.
Someone who engaged in racial profiling while NYC mayor? Check.
But that’s not all. A newly leaked audio tape surfaced this week of Bloomberg speaking at a 2015 event in Aspen where he admitted to targeting young black men and people of color while mayor.
Trigger warning — what you’re about to read is extremely disturbing and should disqualify Bloomberg from running for president.
“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. “They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city (inaudible).”
He continued, “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.”
It’s no wonder U.S. prisons are disproportionately overpopulated with minorities — it’s due in part to troubling policies deployed by politicians like Michael Bloomberg and others. This includes Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who voted for the passage of the 1994 Crime Bill under former President Bill Clinton which contributed to the mass incarceration of a generation of black men.
Sanders has since said he regrets voting for the controversial bill. Bloomberg has also apologized for not curtailing “Stop and Frisk” sooner than he did while mayor.
Too little, too late for all the young black men and their families whose lives were destroyed by both.
At the Aspen Institute event, Bloomberg said, “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 …”
Not surprisingly, the billionaire businessman’s representatives tried to stop the tape from being released. It triggered cringeworthy headlines this week and the hashtag #BloombergIsARacist that went viral on social media with many calling for his withdrawal from the presidential race.
Not a minute too soon.