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Who is Obama's golf buddy?

August 14, 2013

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 Mayor Bloomberg stated in April that the NYPD’s use of stop and frisk is necessary “to deter people from carrying guns. . . . [I]f you end stops looking for guns, . . . there will be more guns in the hands of young people and more people will be getting killed.” At the same time, the City emphasized in its opening arguments that “blacks and Hispanics account for a disproportionate share of . . . crime perpetrators,” and that “90 percent of all violent crime suspects are black and Hispanic.” When these premises are combined — that the purpose of stop and frisk is to deter people from carrying guns and that blacks and Hispanics are a disproportionate source of violent crime — it is only a short leap to the conclusion that blacks and Hispanics should be targeted for stops in order to deter gun violence, regardless of whether they appear objectively suspicious. [From Judge Shira Scheindlin’s decision declaring “stop-and-frisk” unconstitutional]

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Hizzoner’s hell-in-one: Mayor Bloomberg defends President Obama’s refusal to let the press hit the course with him on his Presidents’ Day golf getaway 

‘Come on, the guy deserves the chance to have a life,’ said Bloomberg

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, rides in a golf cart driven by President Barack Obama, right, while playing golf at Vineyard Golf Club, in Edgartown, Mass., on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Friday, Aug. 27, 2010. The President and his family are vacationing on the island. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Steven Senne/AP

Mayor Bloomberg rides in a golf cart driven by President Obama when the high-powered pair played at Vineyard Golf Club on Martha’s Vineyard in 2010. Hizzoner defended his former playing partner for barring the media from the course during his Presidents’ Day golf trip to Florida.

Mayor Bloomberg — never one to tell the media where he is bound on weekend jaunts — defended President Obama’s refusal to let the press caddie for him on his Florida golf getaway last weekend.

“I don’t know why you, the press, think you have a God-given right to follow him every minute,” Hizzoner said when asked Thursday what he thought about Obama not permitting reporters and photographers to tail him on the course.

Bloomberg trying to sink a putt ...

Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News

Bloomberg trying to sink a putt …

“You know you’re going to run the picture … when he misses the ball or slices it into the woods,” he added.

 

Speaking of woods, Obama played with Tiger Woods, and the world’s second-ranked golfer said 44’s got game.

Obama, shown here lining up a putt in 2011, played with Tiger Woods while in Florida last weekend. Tiger said Obama could really tear it up if he had more time to practice his game. 

Steven Senne/AP

Obama, shown here lining up a putt in 2011, played with Tiger Woods while in Florida last weekend. Tiger said Obama could really tear it up if he had more time to practice his game.

The billionaire mayor has been known to take hush-hush short vacations now and again to vacation homes in Bermuda, Vail, Colo., and elsewhere.

He argued Obama has “a right to a vacation.”

“Come on, the guy deserves the chance to have a life,” Bloomberg continued. “He was away for three days, if I remember.”

tmoore@nydailynews.com