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NYDN: Mayor Bloomberg Stands By His White Frisk Comment As Rep. Hakeem Jeffries Calls For Federal NYPD Monitor

An embattled Mayor Bloomberg stood by his controversial comments on the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy Sunday — and unloaded on his critics.

“The numbers don’t lie,” Bloomberg said, defending Friday’s remark that “we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little.”

His office noted that 87% of people stopped under the policy in 2012 were black or Latino, but more than 90% murder suspects were identified by witnesses or victims black or Latino.

And 9% of those stopped were white, though just 7% of suspects were ID’d as white.

The comments were slammed over the weekend by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Democratic mayoral candidates, but Bloomberg said Sharpton needs to focus more on “helping the kids in this city.”

“It’s sad he got away from that, became a television star and doesn’t seem to focus on the kids who just don’t have the education that they need to compete and don’t have a structured family at home that can help.”

The candidates, he added, should focus on solutions to the underlying problems instead of trying to “create an issue.”

Also on Sunday, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) called for the a federal monitor to oversee the NYPD.

“The mayor’s comments were so troubling” that the Department of Justice needs to get involved now, Jeffries said.

“The mayor has shown no willingness to reign in the NYPD,” he said.

With Simone Weichselbaum