Trump's "Unconstitutional Policy Proposal:" Nationwide Stop & Frisk (Oops)

Great Sign /Great Message, America

How About Stop and Frisk Trump Before His Next Speech

While recording a “core black issues” town hall interview conducted by Sean Hannity, Donald Trump took an audience member’s [from a man named Ricardo] question about stopping “black on black crime.” Trump’s answer, which will air as part of a Fox News Channel broadcast, was pretty to the point: He’d institute a “stop-and-frisk” law on a nationwide level.

Stop-and-frisk programs are exactly what you’d expect them to be: They allow police to stop someone on the street based on suspicion of criminal activity. However, while Trump said that “In New York City, it was so incredible, the way stop-and-frisk worked.”

However, studies have shown it wasn’t effective and it was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in 2013. In that ruling, Federal Judge Shira A. Scheindlin noted that “the stopped population is overwhelmingly innocent — not criminal and that there’s no basis for assuming that an innocent population shares the same characteristics as the criminal suspect population in the same area.” Perhaps most tellingly, though, the judge also wrote that the law targeted “blacks and Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white.”

Unedited transcript of Trump’s stop-and-frisk answer to Ricardo’s question:

“Right, well, one of the things I’d do Ricardo, is I would do stop-and-frisk. 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 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, 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 it could be one step you could do.”

This just in from ABC News: Trump also said in part: “Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they’ve ever been in before, ever, ever, ever,” seeming to not take into account (1) slavery, (2) institutional segregation, or (3) the violence that occurred in the 1960's as black Americans (4) fought for voting rights.

Then a day later (I think it was a day later) and in true Trump fashion when caught in a lie or awful pickle, like his stop and frisk proposal, and naturally spoken on “FOX & Friends,” he sought to amend/walk back his original position.

He said he never meant to suggest that stop and frisk would be implemented nationally, by adding: “Now Chicago is out of control. I was referring to Chicago with stop and frisk.”

Note: Oddly enough his original proposal was in response to the question that did not mention Chicago by name, though Trump cited the city in a previous answer as a place that is “out of control.”

Keep in mind, as president, Trump would not be able to unilaterally implement the policy in a single city – he would have to defer to local officials and law enforcement.

This man in a word is a loser by any and all accounts.

So, again, thanks for stopping. Be sure and watch the 1st debate September 26 and hang on tight for the next 45 days. It could get rougher and nastier (even if that’s possible) with Trump getting crazier (or even if that too is possible).