President Donald Trump exploits gun violence in Chicago to tout the utility of widespread stopping, questioning and frisking of young black men _ a policing tactic that, applied as he suggests, is equal parts divisive and discredited.
Having lived through New York's historic crime decline, including years in which far too many young minority men were hassled without cause, the president should know better. Stop laughing.
Speaking at a law enforcement convention Monday, Trump declared that the Windy City should "strongly consider stop and frisk," adding, "it works, and it was meant for problems like Chicago."
Well, Chicago stops and frisks people _ all police departments do. But the city, like New York, instituted reforms to curtail its use.
Stop and frisk is a tactic best wielded with a scalpel, not a mallet. Used excessively, it produces more harm than good.
We should know. Just five years ago, Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin declared stop and frisk _ as then practiced by the NYPD _ unconstitutional because of its impact on communities of color.
We disagreed, predicting increased gun violence if Mayor de Blasio followed through on his promise to roll it back.
He did. The violence never materialized.
In a mea culpa, we admitted that concurrent with a nearly 97 percent drop from stop and frisk's 685,700 peak in 2011 to 22,900 in 2015, murders also fell: from 536 in 2010 to 352 in 2015. Last year saw another record low of 290 murders.
Smart policing keeps street violence down while minimizing police-community friction.
Stop-and-frisk, Trump-style, is dumb.
