"It's controversial, but first thing is all of your — 95 percent of your murders and murderers, and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take the description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all of the cops. They are male, minorities, 15 to 25. That's true in New York, it's true in virtually every city in America," Bloomberg is heard saying in the newly released audio.

"That's where the real crime is," he added. "You've got to get the guns out of the hands of the people that are getting killed. First thing you can do to help that group is to keep them alive."

Bloomberg would later make even more candid comments, defending New York's "stop-and-frisk" policy and even admitting that the city of New York does arrest mostly minorities.

"So one of the unintended consequences is, people say 'Oh, my God you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.' Yes, that's true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods," he said. "Yes that's true, why do we do it? Because that's where all the crime is. And the first thing you can do for people is to stop them getting killed."