Mike Bloomberg, despite not qualifying for the Democratic debates, completely skipping the Iowa caucus, and not making it on the ballot in the New Hampshire primaries, is determined to continue spending his millions on spending his millions on ads.
The former NYC mayor, with a staggering net worth of $60 billion, is going to need as much bought media as possible now that a tape was shared by a reporter on Twitter of Bloomberg speaking to the Aspen Institute in 2015 on what he described as the successes of his administration’s stop-and-frisk policing policy in New York. It has since gone viral and has been shared by Trump strategists.
Bloomberg’s comments did not stop at praising what he feels was a successful policy. Bloomberg went on to describe how the policy had to be implemented in black and minority communities in New York in general.
“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 can be heard saying. “They are male, minorities, 16-25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city (inaudible). And that’s where the real crime is. You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of people that are getting killed.”
The recording has now gone viral and forced Bloomberg to issue an apology to the black community. The liberal media has also attempted to cover for him, as several articles have been published since the viral incident insisting that the billionaire has scooped up black voters that are leaving the Joe Biden camp.
President Donald Trump took advantage of the embarrassing footage, initially tweeting the video and calling Bloomberg “racist.” Liberals in the media were quick to criticize the president, saying he is no better for also being a supporter of the policy.
However, the President has certainly never made comments singling out the black community as Bloomberg did in the tape, saying you could “xerox” the description of black men for police to use or that police would be justified to “throw them up against the wall and frisk them.” Yes, Bloomberg actually said this in the video.
There is a difference between praising a policy for its usefulness in combating crime and singling out an entire community to blame for criminal activity. Furthermore, during the Trump administration, black unemployment and poverty have been at record lows.
Meanwhile, in Bloomberg’s New York City, from 2005 until the end of his term, the poverty rate for black residents remained high at more than 21 percent in 2013. His administration has been criticized for creating a glaring income gap. Under his leadership, the total number of people nearing poverty in NYC ballooned to a staggering 45.1 percent by the time his term came to a close.
Image: Gage Skidmore