Thread by @AbdulElSayed

A thread on @mikebloomberg & #stopandfrisk:

When I was a med student in NYC, I was stopped/frisked. I was a young, brown man in a hoodie in Washington Heights.

In 2012, he spoke at the @PDSoros conference. I took the Q/A opportunity to bring it up.

1/
nytimes.com/2019/11/17/us/…

He called the idea that I would question this racist policy “dumb” and proceeded to ask if I thought he should be stop/frisking rich old white ladies with handbags on the upper east side.

He couldn’t imagine that maybe he just shouldn’t be stop/frisking ANYONE.

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In his pursuit of power now, he wants us to forgive and forget. But that’s the thing - so many young black and brown men in NYC didn’t get that option.

In his eyes, they were guilty until proven innocent. There was no forgive and forget for them.

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The double standard he wants us to apply in forgiving him is part and parcel of the implicit supremacy he showed in implementing stop/frisk in the first place.

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I believe that we allow have to allow leaders the space to acknowledge their past faults and to grow.

But I believe that should apply to lapses in judgment and execution, not lapses in basic governing values.

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Mike Bloomberg believes that because he is rich, he has the right to dictate to the rest of us. He has no sense of the plight of the poor and marginalized.

These things were true when he was Mayor of NYC. And they are true now.

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I believe they would be true if he were president.

What’s changed?

The damage his values wrought are now an obstacle to his pursuit of power.

Too little, too late @MikeBloomberg.

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