We like Mike Bloomberg. And we've been tough on him on stop and frisk, a bad policy we once supported, then disavowed.
Speaking of evidence, back in 2015, Bloomberg made comments on race and crime that have recently come to light. President Trump, in I'm-rubber-you're-glue mode, said they expose the former mayor as "A TOTAL RACIST." At least one prominent liberal commentator says they are so outrageous they should disqualify him for president.
Please. Still, in the spirit of Bloomberg, who's famous for saying "In God we trust. Everyone else bring data," let's bring some data to the conversation.
"We put all the cops in minority neighborhoods," Bloomberg said, "because that's where all the crime is," before adding that "95% of murders, murderers and murder victims" are male minorities _ blacks and Latinos _ between 16 and 25.
"All" is a reckless exaggeration. There's plenty of crime in all types of neighborhoods, even in America's safest big city.
But it's the 95% number that has most people irked. In New York City, in 2015, blacks made up 63.7% of murder and non-negligent homicide victims and 62.1% of suspects. Hispanics made up 27.6% of victims and 29.6% of suspects.
Add them up: 91.3% of homicide victims in New York City were black or Hispanic. 91.7% of homicide suspects were black or Hispanic.
Feel free to ding Bloomberg for being off by four to five percentage points.
But claiming he engaged in an irresponsible distortion is an irresponsible distortion.
