Donald Trump wants police to use stop-and-frisk tactics more aggressively in black communities even though a federal judge has ruled that the practice violates the rights of minorities.
“I would do stop-and-frisk. I think you have to. We did it in New York; it worked incredibly well. And you have to be proactive,” Trump said.
By referencing the New York policy– used extensively by mayors Rudolph Giuliani (now a top Trump hanger-oner), and Michael R. Bloomberg (now a fierce Trump critic)– Trump was advocating for a return to indiscriminate stopping and frisking of blacks on racial grounds. In 2013, former U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that New York’s stop-and-frisk policy violated the rights of minorities. She told BuzzFeed on Wednesday that Trump’s comments were “destructive.”
A study from the New York Civil Liberties Union found that blacks and Latinos were disproportionately stopped by police from 2002 until 2013 under the stop-and-frisk policy. Few had committed any crimes.
On Wednesday, though, Trump praised the policy, saying “it was so incredible the way it worked.”
