[View the story "The end of 'stop-and-frisk'?" on Storify ]The end of 'stop-and-frisk'? As stop-and-frisk slows in New York, other states are adopting the controversial policy. Storified by AJAMStream · Wed, Feb 05 2014 14:05:37
A federal judge ruled that the NYPD's '
stop-and-frisk ' violated constitutional rights, but former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg appealed the decision. On January 30, 2014, New York's current mayor, Bill de Blasio,
said that his administration would drop Bloomberg's
appeal against the ruling. Despite a historic move to end the practice, some say de Blasio's choice is merely a small step in an effort to end the targeting of minorities by law enforcement.
washingtonpost.com
The ruling, a 195-page
decision made by Judge
Shira Scheindlin ,
analyzed approximately 150,000 arrests from roughly 2.4 million street stops from 2009 to 2012. The analysis
found each stop as "a demeaning and humiliating experience," and concluded that "stop-and-frisk" is "a policy of indirect racial profiling."
Between 2004 and 2012, 83 percent of stops
involved blacks and Latinos, despite the fact that they make up a little more than 50 percent of the city's residents.
The graph below shows the findings from the New York Civil Liberties Union's
analysis of "stop-and-frisk" conducted in 2011.
nyclu.org
Officials from Bloomberg's administration
say the policy helps to reduce murder rates and keep illegal guns off the streets. The former Mayor described Judge Scheindlin's ruling as "dangerous" and said it "undermined public safety." New York City Police Commissioner, Bill Bratton, once
defended the policy as an effective means of reducing crime.
washingtonpost.com
Rates of "stop-and-frisk" have been decreasing in New York, but the use of the policy is escalating in other cities.
In Baltimore, the police department made 123,000 stops in 2012. Baltimore police do not keep track of their use of "stop-and-frisk," permitting officers to use the practice at will. Sonia Jumar, a staff attorney for ACLU Maryland, says there is concern that "there's been a wholly improper misuse of the tactic."
The NYPD is no stranger to instances of profiling. In 2011, the Associate Press
conducted an investigation, which uncovered a Muslim Surveillance Program implemented by the NYPD. The inspection also revealed the placement of undercover officers into neighborhoods based on the ethnicity of residents.
The
Arab American Institute released this video after it was revealed that the NYPD was mapping the areas where Arab Americans lived:
End NYPD Spying on Arab Americans and American Muslims (feat. James Zogby)aaiusa
The NYPD also used informants called "mosque crawlers" to monitor sermons, even when there was no evidence of criminal activity. The surveillance resulted in a lawsuit filed against the NYPD and the City of New York,
naming Mayor Bloomberg as one of the defendants.
thegrio.com
Since Judge Scheindlin's ruling, stops in New York City have
decreased by 22 percent. In cities like Philadelphia, which has installed a number of safeguards on its "stop-and-frisk" policy, stops have also
decreased , leading some to believe the policy can work if implemented properly:
New NYPD chief says stop & frisk is effective "when it's done correctly" and has not yet created "total alienation" http://t.co/eOfFjCH6j0Ryan Devereaux
@billmaher aren't guns illegal in Chicago? How is that working out? Stop and frisk works, but liberals won't allow it. #liberalguiltBilly Blevins
Stop and frisk works. Instead of criticizing @NY_POLICE Chief Ray Kelly, New Yorkers should be thanking him for keeping NY safe.Donald J. Trump
the policemen who stop & frisk are defending me and my family- and sometimes it is done on only on a suspicion- I do not want to make it harder for the people who protect me to protect me- keep on stopping and frisking-america.aljazeera.com
Others feel that racial profiling continues to play a role in stops:
Secret recording confirms what minorities have said all along: #StopandFrisk equals #RacialProfiling http://t.co/OshhVJt6VC #NYPDRania Khalek
The stop and frisk policy represents a continuation of separate and unequal policing on the streets of New York. http://t.co/sOQJd8X1Scott M. Stringer
Having a federal judge relabel "stop and frisk" as racial profiling is a huge shift in the way this policy is understood around the nation.Ari Melber
@AJAMStream We won't end racial profiling until we end racism, and contrary to some misguided political tweets, that ain't over yet.Knitter Scribe
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