NYC Mayor De Blasio Hammers Trump on Stop-and-Frisk Comments

By Rebecca Savransky, The Hill

22 September 16

ew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) early Thursday criticized Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nominee's proposal to expand the use of stop-and-frisk and warned about the consequences of the controversial policing program.

"Donald Trump talks about stop-and-frisk like he knows the facts. He has had no experience with policing, no experience with public safety," de Blasio said Thursday on CNN's "New Day."

"He should really be careful, because if we reinstitute stop-and-frisk all over this country, you would see a lot more tension between police and community."

Trump was asked earlier this week how he would address violence in black communities, according to a transcript of a town hall with Fox News's Sean Hannity. He responded that one of the things he would do is implement stop-and-frisk policies.

"I think you have to," Trump said.

The GOP nominee said policies have to be "proactive" and said the program worked "incredibly well" in New York City.

“Now, we had a very good mayor, but New York City was incredible, the way that worked, so I think that could be one step you could do,” Trump said. De Blasio on Thursday disputed Trump's claims. He said the stop-and-frisk program was intensified for a limited period of time over the past decade and had negative consequences.

"The bottom line is it created a huge amount of division between police and community," de Blasio said.

"We ended that unconstitutional use of stop-and-frisk. That overuse of stop-and-frisk. What's happened in the three years since we made the change? Crime has gone down consistently since we actually stopped using it."