New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a predominately Black church in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn something interesting about the controversial "Stop And Frisk" program. "Police officers make stops in Brownsville and East New York not because of race—it is because of crime," Bloomberg told the congregation at First Baptist Church. "Brownsville and East New York remain two of the highest-crime areas in our city," Bloomberg said, but "Stop And Frisk" has expanded beyond those parameters. The practice by which police officers have the right to stop and question anyone they deem suspicious has been blasted by critics as racial profiling.

Dr. Cornel West and 19 others were recently convicted in May of disorderly conduct for protesting the controversial program.