BROOKLYN, NY — Michael Bloomberg continued his apology tour on Sunday, stopping at a black church in Brooklyn to say that he was sorry. The topic was stop and frisk, the controversial policing tactic that was a lightning rod for controversy during the tail end of Bloomberg’s 12-year run as mayor of New York.
He appeared at the Christian Cultural Center where he told the congregation that while the goal had been “saving lives,” too many innocent people got caught up in the process and that, looking back, the policy had been wrong.
When Bloomberg was New York’s mayor, crime did go down but the stop and frisk policy, which led to the millions of stops, many of people of color, increased tensions between the police and the communities that they were tasked with protecting.
“I want you to know that I realize back then I was wrong, and I am sorry,” he said.
The apology follows by a couple of days a Bloomberg advisor releasing a statement offering an apology of sorts on another topic – allegations that he had been sexist toward women.
“Mike has come to see that some of what he has said is disrespectful and wrong,” a spokesman for Bloomberg told The New York Times.
“He believes his words have not always aligned with his values and the way he has led his life.”
The contriteness toward women and people of color come as Bloomberg mulls a run for president, having already placed his name on ballots for the Democratic primaries in Alabama and Arkansas.