Despite crime being at an all-time low in the Big Apple, stop and frisks are at an all time high & guess who gets stopped and frisked the most?

A total of 575,304 people were stopped and questioned in 2009 – an 8% increase over the previous high of 531,159 in 2008, the NYPD said Tuesday…
The NYPD was required under a 2001 law to report data on those stopped, questioned and frisked.

Of those stopped in 2009, roughly 57% were frisked, 6% were arrested, and another 6.2% received summonses. Blacks and Latinos were the subject of roughly 87% of the stops in 2009.

The practice of these stop and frisk operations are nothing new. They grew under the Giuliani administration and continued to be used because they were touted as a huge part of the huge drop in crime in NYC. Never mind that crime was dropping nation-wide, in large part due to the decline of crack cocaine. Crime continues to fall and yet stop and frisks are up with low actual arrest rates.

The justification given for the high number of people of color being stopped is that crime happens in POC neighborhoods so of course more POC will be stopped. Certainly in my neighborhood there are a ton of police officers pulling cars over and stopping people on the street. We are told that it is a small inconvenient price to pay for safety. Except that safety doesn’t extend to our communities. Ask the family of Sean Bell or ask Micheal Mineo.

It makes me sad to see that 10 years after Amadou Diallo was killed, the NYPD and NYC hasn’t learned.

Via / NY Daily News