In a town hall event with Sean Hannity scheduled to air Wednesday night, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump will say that “stop and frisk” is a good way to address crime in the black community.
“I would do stop and frisk,” Trump said according to a copy of the partial transcript tweeted out by NBC News. “I think you have to. We did it in New York, it worked incredibly well, and you have to be proactive, and you know, you really help people change sort of change their mind automatically. You understand, you have to have, in my opinion. I see what’s going on here. I see what’s going on in Chicago, I think stop and frisk.”
Trump was asked the question at a town hall event held at a largely African-American church in Cleveland, Ohio, according to Reuters.
Stop and frisk has been widely criticized for disproportionately targeting African-American and Latino residents and has faced legal challenges across the country including in New York City where Trump said it had worked so well.
“In New York City, it was so incredible, the way it worked. Now, we had a very good mayor, but New York City was incredible, the way that worked, so I think that is one step you could do,” Trump said.
Trump’s support for stop and frisk was a bit peculiar considering that the president of the United States doesn’t set individual cities’ policing policies. In a comment to TPM, Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks said that Trump “did not propose nationalizing stop and frisk.” When asked to clarify what Trump was proposing, TPM was told to “watch the show tonight to get the full context.”
Connie Tucker, an individual who had sat in on the town hall told Reuters that the room had felt uncomfortable when Trump issued his strong defense of stop and frisk.
“I felt like there was a pause,” Tucker said, according to Reuters.
The comment appeared to once again be an awkward and missed attempt at reaching out to the African-American community. Instead, the strategy seemed to be more about convincing suburban white voters to vote for Trump in November.
