Bloomberg offers regret over stop-and-frisk policy
Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg used a rally at Houston’s Buffalo Soldiers National Museum to tell a predominately black audience that he “deeply regrets” ever supporting the controversial stop-and-frisk policy he employed while mayor of New York City.
Bloomberg told the audience that he knows now he was wrong to defend the policy that targeted black and Hispanic residents for pat-downs to see if they had weapons. That program has become a major stumbling block for many Democratic voters as they weigh Bloomberg’s run for the White House.
“I should have acted sooner and faster to stop it, and for that I apologize,” said Bloomberg, who was mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013.
Bloomberg, who turned 78 on Friday, said he has learned from that time, and he vowed to be the biggest champion in the White House for black and Hispanic communities.
“I am committed to using the power of the presidency to right the wrongs of institutional racism,” Bloomberg told the crowd.
It was Bloomberg’s fifth trip to Texas since December and his third stop in Houston. Most of those visits in Houston have been focused on the black community. But Thursday’s speech was his most detailed apology yet for his support of stop and frisk.
The program has come under intense criticism since a recording came to light in which Bloomberg can be heard defending the policy by saying “we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods” because “that’s where all the crime is.”
“I defended it, looking back, for too long because I didn’t understand then the unintended
pain it was causing to young black and brown families and their kids,” Bloomberg said Thursday. “I should have acted sooner and faster to stop it — I didn’t, and for that I apologized.
“I’ve spent a lot of time speaking with black leaders and community members and listening to their stories. I heard their pain, their confusion and their anger, and I’ve learned from them, and I’ve grown from them.”
But his speech Thursday was also about touting a new program he is calling “Mike for Black America,” which aims to address issues and concerns in the black community. Bloomberg said that at the foundation of that program is addressing issues of wealth inequality in white and black communities. He said he plans to help 1 million more black families buy homes and double the amount of black-owned businesses in America.
Bloomberg also used the rally to tout his new endorsement from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
The mayor said he told Bloomberg his support was a “nonstarter” unless Bloomberg recognized “that the policy put in place was not the right policy, that it was flawed.”
“Sometimes in our desire to get it right, we can get it wrong, and we can make some mistakes,” Turner said.
Also attending the event were a number of African-American mayors from outside Texas who have endorsed Bloomberg — including Adrian Perkins of Shreveport, La., who acknowledged in an interview that Bloomberg’s prior comments, and the stopand-frisk policy, initially gave him pause.
“That was the first thing I thought about,” Perkins said. “It’s indefensible. But the good news is that Mike Bloomberg did not try to defend it and already apologized for it out front. It was the first thing that he did.”
In an interview after the event, Turner said he viewed Bloomberg’s use of the stop-and-frisk policy as “insensitive” and “quite frankly wrong.” But, Turner said, he considered Bloomberg’s “whole record” as mayor — including job creation and “making health care accessible for hundreds of thousands of people” — in deciding to endorse him.
“I think the sign of any good leader is recognizing the mistakes and then putting forth the path to go forward,” Turner said.
Bloomberg also used his stop in Houston to jab back at President Donald Trump, who earlier in the day used Twitter to say “Mini Mike Bloomberg is a LOSER.” That followed similar attacks earlier in the week.
Bloomberg seemed to relish the attention, telling audiences that Trump is afraid of him.
“We’re scaring the living hell out of him,” Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg then said he had a message directly for Trump.
“You can’t bully me, and I won’t let you bully the American people,” he said.
Bloomberg jumped into the presidential race in November, six months after most of the other contenders. Instead of campaigning in early voting states such as New Hampshire and Iowa, Bloomberg has built his strategy around Texas and 13 other states that vote March 3, also known as Super Tuesday. Despite the late start, Bloomberg’s national polling numbers have jumped and he is now among the top four or five contenders in most major polls.
It was not the only presidential attention Houston received Thursday.
Earlier, Bloomberg was one of two keynote speakers at the Harris County Democratic Party’s annual Johnson Rayburn Richards fundraiser dinner. That event also included Julián Castro, who dropped out of the presidential race in early January and is now backing U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for the Democratic nomination.
Earlier in the day, California businessman Tom Steyer opened his first Texas campaign office, in Houston. And just before the Johnson Rayburn Richards dinner, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign opened a new office in Houston’s East End.
All the activity comes just days before the start of early voting in Texas, which through Feb. 28.