Mayor Bloomberg to Black Church: ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ Is Here to Stay

Jun 13, 2012

On Sunday New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg went to a black church in one of the city’s most heavily policed neighborhoods to let them know ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ isn’t going anywhere. Just after citing Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech the Mayor told the congregation at the First Baptist Church of Brownsville that ‘stop-and-frisk’ should be "mended, not ended." The New York Times reports Bloomberg opened up his speech with an allusion to Dr. King’s "I Have a Dream" speech and suggested that gun violence remained a barrier to full racial equality. Later, he said of the frisk policy, "to borrow a phrase from President Clinton, I believe the practice needs to be mended, not ended" — a reference to a phrase that Mr. Clinton used in a very different context, in a 1995 speech defending affirmative action programs. "We are not going to walk away from a strategy that we know saves lives," Bloomberg said on Sunday, the[ NY Times reports.](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/nyregion/at-black-church-in-brooklyn-bloomberg-defends-stop-and-frisk-policy.html) "At the same time, we owe it to New Yorkers to ensure that stops are properly conducted and carried out in a respectful way."