Watch NY Times' Charles Blow Explain Problems With Trump’s Advocacy Of Nationwide Stop-And-Frisk Policy

Written by Media Matters Staff

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New York Times columnist Charles Blow explained the overt race-based elements of the ineffective stop-and-frisk policy advocated by GOP nominee Donald Trump to curb black violence.

During a town hall hosted by conservative radio show host and television personality Sean Hannity the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump advocated implementing a nationwide stop-and-frisk policy to quell the violence in the black community.

While stop-and-frisk has been lauded by the conservative media, it has proven ineffective in actually stopping crime and its use in New York City was deemed unconstitutional. According to the Washington Post, there is no evidence stop-and-frisk reduced crime. And in 2013, a federal judge deemed the overt racial stop-and-frisk practices in New York City unconstitutional based on"at least 200,000 stops were made without reasonable suspicion.”

New York Times columnist and CNN political commentator Charles Blow highlighted host stop-and-frisk was used as a race-based “intimidation tool” that “functioned as a kind of ethnic cleaning mechanism” in the cities that used it. From the September 21 edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360:

CHARLES BLOW: To advocate for something that is obviously race-based. That is, that is obviously unconstitutional. That a judge has called -- I've been on this topic for a very long time. The judge who made that rule unconstitutional quoted one of my columns in the closing line of her decision. There is no way to get around the idea that this is not targeting African Americans for hostility. Nine out of ten of the people who were stopped never charged with anything. They said that it was meant to stop people who may have weapons, that is not the way it was used at all. It was used as an intimidation tool, directed specifically at these particular people. And I believe that it -- it functioned as a kind of ethnic cleansing mechanism in cities. New York City at the height of stop-and-frisk which is 2010. The first time in New York City's history -- since the reconstruction, that the population of blacks in New York City fell. And there was other issues at play. An economic strain. And also social and political strain and there was also a tremendous amount of pressure being put on those populations by the police in this country.