Photo : Yana Paskova ( Getty Images )

For years, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been an ardent proponent of stop-and-frisk, the blatantly racist policy that allowed the NYPD to disproportionately target and terrorize black and brown citizens. But now that he’s laying the groundwork for a 2020 presidential run that’s destined to implode , the 77-year-old billionaire is apologizing for his previous stance.


The Hill reports that on Sunday, in a shameless attempt to secure the black vote and strengthen his potential bid for the Democratic nomination, Bloomberg visited the Christian Cultural Center, a black megachurch in Brooklyn, and proceeded to pander like no one has ever pandered before:



“Over time, I’ve come to understand something that I long struggled to admit to myself: I got something important wrong. I got something important really wrong. I didn’t understand that 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. Now, hindsight is 20/20. But, as crime continued to come down as we reduced stops, and as it continued to come down during the next administration, to its credit, I now see that we could and should have acted sooner and acted faster to cut the stops. I wish we had. I’m sorry that we didn’t. But, I can’t change history. However today, I want you to know that I realize back then I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”


Historically, “good intentions” have almost always come at the expense of communities of color.



So once this “apology” began to circulate in the news, many took to Twitter to air Bloomberg’s ass out and remind him of the irreparable damage inflicted on black and brown families that can’t be erased by a simple apology.


Former NYPD Lt. Darrin Porcher also had some things to get off his chest, telling PIX 11, “If you’re a leader you need to stand behind your policies. This is something he stood behind, and as we progress to now, he’s now flip-flopping—or he’s folding—based on a political sentiment for his perspective of running for president.”




And when asked if he believes Bloomberg’s apology was sincere, Porcher responded, “Absolutely not.”



New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio shared a similar sentiment.



“We have had plenty of inflection points where he could have said, ‘You know what, I was wrong,’” de Blasio told CNN. “He has never cared to do that. And I think that says something about the veracity of this.”




De Blasio also added, “To wait six whole years and only when it is a matter of need, I think that raises eyebrows. This is a deathbed conversion.”



To put how incredibly racially bias stop-and-frisk was into context, Forbes dropped this startling statistic:



At its peak in 2011, 685,724 NYPD stops were recorded, with nearly 90 percent of people stopped being innocent. Of those stopped, 87 percent were black or Latino, and more than half were under the age of 24.


If Bloomberg has any desire to atone for his sins of the past, he’s gonna have to do a lot more than offer half-ass apologies, as nobody is buying his fake remorse, even for a second.