The anti-crime
tactic in which police stop, question and search pedestrians for weapons or
contraband, gained traction in New York City under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now a
top Trump supporter.
But opposition
to the practice led police departments in New York, as well as Chicago and
Newark, New Jersey, to agree to cut back on its use, in some cases submitting
to outside monitoring and improving police training.
"I would
do stop-and-frisk. I think you have to," Trump said, according to excerpts
of a Fox News "town hall" in Cleveland, after a listener asked what
he would do to reduce crime in predominantly black communities across the
nation.
"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," he added.
Ending the
practice in New York was a key plank of Democrat Bill de Blasio's successful
2013 run for mayor.
As the race
between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton tightens ahead of the Nov. 8
election, he has been reaching out to African-American voters, shown by opinion
polls to largely favor Clinton.
Trump has
portrayed himself as the "law-and-order candidate." But Clinton has
criticized many of his proposals as unconstitutional attacks on American
freedoms.
Clinton's
campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's
statement.
"Stop and
frisk" had saved lives and reduced crime in New York City under Giuliani,
the Trump campaign said in a statement.
"Mr.
Trump believes that a locally tailored version of ‘stop and frisk’ should be
used in Chicago to help reduce skyrocketing violence and make our Chicago safe
again," spokesman Jason Miller said.
'WE ARE VICTIMS'
'WE ARE VICTIMS'
Anger over
police tactics has risen as their fatal encounters with African-Americans, many
of them unarmed, have sparked protests and unrest across the country.
In his appeal to African-American voters, Trump has lamented the woes of black communities, asking those who traditionally vote Democratic to take a chance on him. But his often dire portrayals of their lives have left some black voters unmoved.
Connie Tucker,
a pastor at Father Heart Ministries in Columbus, Ohio, said she liked policies
that brought results, so if stop-and-frisk helped cut crime, she backed it.
But Tucker,
who is white, said she sensed discomfort in the room at Trump's remarks.
"I felt like there was a pause," she said.
Another
attendee, Geoff Betts, 38, who is black, said he felt dismayed by Trump's
response.
Betts, a hair
products distributor, said he was registered to vote as an independent and
attended to learn how Trump would try to win over black voters.
He said he
thought police unfairly discriminated against black citizens and that he
opposed stop-and-frisk.
"We are
victims," he said, adding that he had walked out of the meeting. "I
just couldn't take it anymore, I had to go. I don't think that Donald Trump
gets it."
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