NEW YORK—On his 71st birthday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave his 12th and final State of the City speech in front of elected officials at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, a project he helped get approved.
During the 50 minute speech, the mayor received warm applause as he listed the accomplishments of his three terms. He received one standing ovation—when he passionately urged Congress to pass common sense gun reform.
The applause stopped however when, in the next paragraph of his speech, the Mayor addressed Stop, Question, and Frisk, the controversial policy used by the NYPD.
“I understand that innocent people don’t like to be stopped,” Bloomberg said. “But innocent people don’t like to be shot and killed either. Stops take hundreds of guns off the street each year.”
As the mayor compared New York City’s murder rate to Detroit and praised NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, Council Member Jumaane Williams called out, saying the mayor was lying and passing on misinformation.
The comments did not stop the speech, and Mayor Bloomberg did not address Williams—who said afterwards that his comments came out of frustration.
“He made it a point to double down on stop-and-frisk. I think he spent an inordinate amount of time on that and that was frustrating,” Williams said.
