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NYPD Stop And Frisk Beat Keeps On Keeping On
By
Ben Yakas
Published Nov 20, 2009
Modified Nov 20, 2009
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Nov 20, 2009
Modified Nov 20, 2009
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The NYPD's stop and frisk policy shows no signs of abating. The latest data on the controversial program shows that the NYPD is on track to stop a record number of New Yorkers this year.
According to the NYCLU latest report, police made more than 404,000 stops of New Yorkers during the first nine months of the year, the majority of whom were black and Latino. Only seven percent of those stopped were given a summons and just six percent were arrested. Between July and September alone, 137,894 people were questioned, with nearly nine out of 10 of these stops resulting in no charges or citations.
Police claim that these stops deter criminals, preemptively at times, and that the NYCLU is distorting "the statistics by defining an "innocent" person as someone who hasn't been convicted of a crime."
The NYCLU views this as blatant racism: “A practice that wastes an officer’s valuable time with a 90 percent fail rate - while at the same time humiliating hundreds of thousands of black and brown New Yorkers - is not a wise or effective policing technique,” said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “It is a stunning abuse of power. It is not a crime to walk down the street in New York City, yet every day innocent black and brown New Yorkers are turned into suspects for doing just that.” And lest we forget, they're keeping a database of names of all the people stopped, questioned, frisked, and released each year.
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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