Federal Judge indicts NYPD in Stop And Frisk Racial Profiling Lawsuit

The NYPD's key crime-fighting tactic known as Stop and Frisk appears headed to trial.

A federal judge in an 86-page decision ruled that a lawsuit by several plaintiffs raises serious questions about quotas, racial profiling, and constitutional rights that should be heard by a jury:

Despite attempts to have it thrown out, the Center for Constitutional Rights' lawsuit accusing the NYPD of "stop and frisk" racial profiling will proceed. Yesterday Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled that there was enough evidence, stating, "This case presents an issue of great public concern... the disproportionate number of African-Americans and Latinos who become entangled in our criminal justice system, as compared to Caucasians."

NYPD data shows that about 85 percent of the stops are conducted on non-whites, but NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly has long maintained that these stops are more about the demographics of criminals than racial profiling. The court's ruling comes on the heels of news showing that the NYPD is on pace to stop and frisk more people than ever before. The Daily News reports that 317,000 people were stopped between January 1 and June 30, an increase of almost 14 percent from last year. Last year was a record too, in case you were wondering.

The increasing number of stops is troubling, said Darius Charney, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights. "We had 575,000 in 2009, just over 600,000 in 2010, and we're now on pace for over 700,000 this year," Charney tells the Times. "All this is in an era of either declining or flat crime rates, which begs the question: Is there really a need for this many stops?"

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• NYPD
• police
• cop
• New
• York
• Stop
• Frisk
• Adil
• Polanco
• Nycresistance
• Bloomberg
• Kelly
• Libya
• Irene
• violation

[paco291]

Bloomberg doesn't like the constitution.

[wpribble]

unconstitutional!  New Yorkers put up with too much s... because of fear. Get your rights back.

[sermadness]

4th amendment, bah who needs it. OR who reads it.... lol Not the police.

[calisha2fly]

@JesusDillinger The race angle is relevant because their not stoping and frisking EVERYONE their stoping and frisking BLACK AND HISPANICS ( more than 85% of the time)

[GNut1980]

stops saves lives my ass..its unconstitutional unless theres strong suspicion and most of the time they have no stong suspicion.they just do it to harrass people and make their day go by fast.you know what will save lives?let the law abiding people own firearms thats what.

[ddlynn100]

Please everyone file sue everytime you are violated and it will stop!

[ddlynn100]

Thank God for fighting New Yorkers, I was just made aware of this as a legal practice on Vanguard, its not as bad in Houston because they have scared everyone inside even though they won't admit. I think about all the young black vets who will be harrassed because of this law. Everyone stopped wrongly should file suite to stop the practice, I'm tired of being afraid everytime my husband drives at night.

[1LLNO1ZE]

Man that's bogus as hell, and I'm from Chicago we get stopped but not like this. saving lives my Ass, they only find one gun per 700 stop and frisks!

[scalesofjustice0]

Adil palanco... You are a powerful man! You are the toughest cop in the world! I pray for many more cops like you.

An attack on our freedom... Sounds like a guilty statement to me... The only time a statement is used like this is when police or Government take one's freedom... Osama is not a police programmed person so such a statement can only be made by a corrupt system who would think or plan to take one's freedom... Consider occupy wall street.... Consider the Terrorist Act in America...

[JesusDillinger]

I'm glad this is getting challenged, but the race angle is irrelevant. Stop and Frisk is wrong for everyone.

The government doesn't own the People; the People own the government.