Bill de Blasio was ceremonially sworn in as mayor of New York City by former US President Bill Clinton on January 1, 2014.<\/p>\n
Bill de Blasio who was sworn in as the new mayor of New York City on Wednesday says he will not renege on his campaign pledge to address the issue of inequality.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00c5\u201cWe are called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love,\u201d said de Blasio during his inaugural address.<\/p>\n \u00c5\u201cAnd so today, we commit to a new progressive direction in New York,\u201d he added stressing that \u00c5\u201cwe won\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n Many people in New York are hoping that de Blasio will address the issue of stop-and-frisk tactics employed by the New York Police Department which were supported by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.<\/p>\n The program which mainly targets minorities was ruled unconstitutional by US District Judge Shira Scheindlin in August.<\/p>\n Scheindlin described the tactics as a \u00c5\u201cpolicy of indirect racial profiling\u201d that led the New York City police to routinely stop \u00c5\u201cblacks and Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York Civil Liberties Union demonstrated in a 2012 report that there had been a sharp increase in the number of police stops over the period of Bloomberg\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s three terms in office.<\/p>\n The number of searches rose from 160,851 stops in 2003 to 685,724 in 2011, while half of the 2011 searches included physical searches.<\/p>\n Scheindlin did not halt the program but named a federal court monitor to implement reforms.<\/p>\n However, the city immediately appealed her ruling and a federal appeals court in November halted Scheindlin\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s order which called for changes to the NYPD\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s stop-and-frisk program.<\/p>\n Many New Yorkers were hoping that de Blasio would deal with the NYPD\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s stop-and-frisk program. Nevertheless, he disappointed people in New York even before he was sworn in when he selected William Bratton, who introduced \u00c5\u201cinnovative and aggressive\u201d policing policies in the past that are still being used, as the city\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s new police commissioner.<\/p>\n ISH\/ISH<\/p>\n<\/div>\n