This past week in class we were assigned to read an article titled “The NYPD Tapes: Inside Bed-Stuy’s 81st Precinct,” in this article it is revealed that the eighty-first precinct bosses threatened street officers if they failed to make their quotas of arrests and stop- and- frisks. I recently came across the Center for Constitutional Rights website in which they had an article titled “NYPD Stop and Frisk Practice: Unfair and Unjust.” Within this article stop-and- frisk is defined as being the practice by which police officers initiates the stop of a particular individual on the street whom they believe is suspicious of conducting any form of criminal activities. According to the center of constitutional rights stop and frisk procedures do not guarantee the possibility of reducing crime rates. It is also fact that the majority of stop and frisk incidents occur in communities of color, leaving the people who live in the communities to feel under siege and attacked and harassed by the police. Approximately 576, 392 stop and frisks occur in New York City each year and about ninety percent of those 576,392 individuals are people of color. Rather than reducing crime the acts of stop and frisks are actually contributing to the fear and mistrust people of color feel towards authority figures (the police) within their communities. The reason for such fear, doubt and mistrust towards the authoritative figures stems from the fact that there has been a large abundance of racial profiling and major incidents of police brutality occurring everyday in communities of color.
Website Link Below:
http://www.ccrjustice.org/stopandfrisk
How can cops use stop and frisk without violating someone constitutional rights? Like the article stated most stop and frisk occur in Black and Latinos communities. Crimes do occur in Black and Latinos communities but innocent civilians also have to suffer the consequences of actual criminals. Stereotypes rooted in the American social culture have clouded people perception of Black and Latinos. For example a Black or Latino male may be dress in baggy pant but it doesn’t necessary mean he is a criminal. The practice of stop and frisk definitely creates mistrust between officials and communities. Due to racial profiling, officials have stopped innocent civilians. For example, a video was shown in class of a young black adult who has been stop because of his race. The community should be able to count on the police department for support as well as the police department should count on the community for any information regarding criminal activities. It’s bad enough communities fear criminals they don’t have to fear officials too. Although the Center for Constitutional Rights is an active movement to address racial profiling, nothing will change unless the NYPD handles violation rights done by officials within the institution. We have seen numerous cases when officials aren’t fairly punished for brutally violating someone’s rights. The pressure of precincts making certain quotas puts a strain on officials to stop innocent civilians. As a result chief commanders don’t stop the misuse of stop and frisk. Now in days, we see many people who have lost respect for officials due to bad experiences.