In the last two years, Bloomberg’s administration has watched as federal prosecutors revealed a heralded high-tech city payroll system pushed by the mayor was plundered in the biggest municipal-fraud scandal in Big Apple history. And Bloomberg’s beloved $2 billion overhaul of the city’s antiquated 911 system has suffered a series of embarrassing failures.
Through it all, though, the mayor has insisted his legacy was still secure because New Yorkers felt safer than ever and that was largely because of stop-and-frisk.
“There is no doubt,” Bloomberg said in a speech in April, “that stops are a vitally important reason why so many fewer gun murders happen in New York than in other major cities – and why we are the safest big city in America.”