New York’s First Black Mayor David Dinkins Endorses Mike Bloomberg
Former New York Mayor David Dinkins is the latest to endorse presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg.
According to a press release, Dinkins, who was mayor from 1990-1993, said he was glad to endorse his good friend and fellow ex-mayor.
“Today our nation is in need of compassionate and competent leadership,” Dinkins said in the statement. “I have complete confidence in Mike’s ability to lead this country during these challenging times and that is why I endorse my friend Mike Bloomberg for President of the United States.”
Dinkins commended Bloomberg on his past accomplishments as mayor from 2003-2003. He also said Bloomberg’s leadership during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks shows his ability to get the job done as president.
In the release, Bloomberg shared his appreciation of the endorsement, calling Dinkins a “man of integrity and dignity.”
“When I was in City Hall, I built on the work Mayor Dinkins led to reduce crime and homelessness, build affordable housing, create new cultural programs, and revitalize the city,” said Bloomberg. “Mayor Dinkins knows what it takes to lead on issues Democrats care most about, and I’m honored to have his endorsement and support.”
Recently Bloomberg has received a lot of backlash due to his comments on stop and frisk.
“95% of your murders, murderers and murder victims fit one M.O.,” said Bloomberg in a 2015 speech. “You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16 to 25.”
At the peak of stop-and-frisk, the racial disparities were shocking, revealing that Black and Latino people were nine times as likely as white people to be targeted by the police. Bloomberg has since apologized.
“Over time, I’ve come to understand something that I long struggled to admit to myself: I got something important wrong,” Bloomberg said. “I got something important really wrong. I didn’t understand back then the full impact that stops were having on the black and Latino communities. I was totally focused on saving lives, but as we know, good intentions aren’t good enough.”
Bloomberg has continued to gain endorsements from prominent Black mayors such as Vi Lyles of Charlotte, London Breed of San Francisco, Muriel E. Bowser of Washington and Sylvester Turner of Houston.
Bloomberg even received an endorsement from education leader Geoffrey Canada after announcing his $70 billion investment plan for Black America.
“For me, the issue is who is going to give our community the best opportunity to recover from that damage that was done by those laws and those police laws. And, for me, that’s Mike Bloomberg,” said Canada.
