Sharpton: Bloomberg Needs to Make ‘Some Sort of Effort for Those That Were Scarred’ by Stop and Frisk

Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” network anchor Al Sharpton called on former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, to make “some sort of effort” to mend some of the scars made by his stop and frisk policy as mayor.

Sharpton suggested Bloomberg come up with a “criminal justice initiative” to help “those that were scarred.”

“We can’t just settle for a speech or a tour of speeches asking for forgiveness,” Sharpton told co-host Mika Brzezinski.

“There ought to be an effort … on his part … to say, and, therefore, I want to try and repair the damages done by this — some kind of criminal justice initiative, some kind of effort for those that were scarred,” he continued. “I also, Mika, don’t want to see him as a leaf that the other candidates duck some of their racial baggage, and that’s why I said in my closing last night I want to know what Bernie’s going to say about the vote he did for the crime bill where people went to jail on the crime bill — no matter what his reason for voting for it, it was a law that incarcerated people. Joe Biden wrote it. Amy Klobuchar, put a 16-year-old — Minnifield should have never gone to jail that she prosecuted in Minnesota. So I don’t want them to attack Bloomberg to cover the fact that all of them have racial baggage. We can reconcile but let’s recognize that.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent