Donald Trump says he'd bring back stop-and-frisk — even though it's unconstitutional

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio viciously tore into Donald Trump after the Republican nominee touted the city's former stop-and-frisk policy as a means of stopping black-on-black crime. Trump is "either ignorant of the history of the city or he's lying about it," de Blasio told the press at City Hall.

On Wednesday, Trump had told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he "would do stop-and-frisk. I think you have to. We did it in New York, it worked incredibly well. And you have to be proactive." The comments came during an Ohio town hall event aimed at promoting Trump to the African-American community. "New York City — it was so incredible, the way it worked," Trump went on. "Now, we had a very good mayor. But New York City was incredible the way it worked. So I think that would be one step you could do."

Stop-and-frisk was widely criticized while in practice, before it was finally ruled a form of racial profiling and thus unconstitutional by a federal judge in 2013. Crime in New York City has fallen to record lows since stop-and-frisk was mostly phased out.

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"Trump doesn't understand the communities he’s talking about," de Blasio said. "He's a pampered billionaire. He has no connection to the people he's talking about. He has no experience in the black community or any other inner city community."

De Blasio also pointed out there is apparently no way for a president to legally allow stop-and-frisk due to its unconstitutional designation.

"I don't understand at all how a guy who calls himself a New Yorker could be this unaware of what's happened in the last few years in this city,” de Blasio said. "We have made this city safer since we ended the unconstitutional practice of stop-and-frisk, and the numbers bear it out."