Michael Bloomberg: I’m ‘embarrassed’ about how ‘stop-and-frisk’ turned out

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday said he’s “embarrassed” at how the “stop-and-frisk” policing policies in his city turned out, saying a well-intentioned program got out of control.

“If I go back and look at my time in office, the one thing that I’m really worried about, embarrassed about was how it turned out with stop and frisk,” Mr. Bloomberg said at the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas.

Mr. Bloomberg’s 2020 rivals — and the federal courts — have said the practice of shaking down potential crime suspects ended up discriminating against people of color.
The former mayor said when they discovered the checks were going overboard, they sharply curtailed the practice.

But former Vice President Joseph R. Biden said the policy changed because the Obama administration sent in monitors.

“The mayor thought it was a terrible idea,” Mr. Biden said. “Let’s get the facts straight…even then he continued the policy.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts demanded a fuller apology.

“It targeted black and brown men from the beginning,” she said. “And if you want to issue a real apology, then the apology has to start with the intent of the plan as it was put together and the willful ignorance, day by day by day, of admitting what was happening even as people protested in your own street.”