Calls for nationwide stop-and-frisk, framing Black neighborhoods as war zones

In the days after the September bombings and unrest in Charlotte, Trump told a Fox News town hall that cities like Chicago needed a return to New York–style stop-and-frisk policing and called for the tactic to be used more broadly nationwide. ABC, CNN, the Guardian, Politico, and the New York Times report him praising stop-and-frisk as a way to “take the guns” from “bad people,” tying the policy to his “law and order” pitch even though a federal court had found New York’s program unconstitutional as practiced and data showed it disproportionately targeted Black and Latino residents. By pushing a discredited tactic as a national model and painting heavily policed neighborhoods as out-of-control crime zones, he used exaggerated fear and racially skewed crime narratives to justify aggressive, rights‑eroding policing aimed at communities of color.

"I would do stop-and-frisk. I think you have to. We did it in New York and it worked incredibly well." — September 21–22, 2016 Fox News town hall and follow-up interviews, where Trump urged bringing back stop-and-frisk in Chicago and other cities as part of a broader “law and order” agenda despite court rulings and data showing it targeted Black and Latino residents.