Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg falsely asserted during a Friday morning CBS News interview that he only recently apologized for his controversial “stop and frisk” policy because he wasn’t asked about it until he ran for president. Asked about the timing of his apology over the approach of stopping and detaining people suspected of criminal activity, a practice that impacted a disproportionate number of minorities, Bloomberg said: “Well, nobody asked me about it until I started running for president, so come on.”
The 77-year-old billionaire’s assertion, however, does not hold water as the high-profile policy was at the center of contention and dispute for years, resulting in a federal court ruling that “stop and frisk” was unconstitutional back in 2013. Bloomberg, meanwhile, has repeatedly contended that the policy helped make New York safer, defending it as recently as this past October—just weeks before he announced his run for the presidency.
