It was recently brought to my attention that this blog is the number three response on Google blog search for the phrase "I Hate New York City", so here's to moving up towards number one.
This is actually pretty old news, but the problem remains the same, and that problem is that the NYPD has been using its "stop-and-frisk" program to stop and frisk thousands of innocent people in an obvious abuse of power. In a period of just three months (April through June, 2009) the NYPD stopped and interrogated more than 140,000 individuals on the streets of the city. According to police department statistics, more than nine out of ten of those incidents ended with no citations issued, and no arrests being made.
So what, you say, if the police want to stop some people in the name of security, that's fine. Well, besides infringing on the rights of those people (9 out of 10 who were doing nothing wrong), and disrupting their day with an unnecessary interrogation, the names and addresses of everyone who has been stopped by the NYPD in the last five years (since the stop-and-frisk program began) is permanently stored on the department's computer system. Having that information in the database can more easily make them the subject of future investigations.
But even if you don't care about personal liberty and the idea that an individual has a right to some modicum of privacy, this will surely concern you: the innocent people victimized by this program are almost always minorities. Of those 140,000 stops between April and June, more than half (74,283) were of blacks, and 44,296 were of Latinos. Less than 14,000 were of whites.
In essence, the NYPD is building a huge database of the minorities in the city, and the information in that database can be collected at will from anyone at anytime with no reason given by the officer conducting the stop. If you resist or refuse to cooperate with the "stop-and-frisk", I'm sure they can charge you just the same as if you were resisting arrest for actually doing something wrong.
But this is not a case of racial profiling, and it should not be mistaken as one. This is a case of civil liberties, and it just so happens that more minorities have had theirs abused.
Whats the difference? If it was a case of racial profiling, you correct it by balancing the number of people stopped. All that's going to do is give the police in New York City more of an excuse for stopping people; they will just have to make sure they stop more white people next time.
Stopping and interrogating any innocent person is wrong, regardless of the color of their skin, and storing their personal information on a police database (again, when they are completely innocent) is even worse. At their current pace, the NYCLU estimates that the NYPD will stop more than 600,000 innocent people during 2009.
I still don't understand why anyone would choose to live in New York City. The cops are after you, even if you're a model citizen.
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+1 to you for picking up on this story in September.
ReplyDeleteThe Associated Press posted an article about it 4 hours ago (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gucDDJfBee4v1X_-35rrwnAxz9uAD9B74I7G0). Apparently Philly and LA do it too. I think one of the news stations here had it today too. So...kudos to you, being on top of things!
this critique of the nypd is way off base. you have failed to mention that the nypd has drastically reduced crime since the mid 90s, to levels not seen since the early 1960s. the nypd's compstat crimetracking system has been copied by nearly every major police department across the nation due to its effectiveness.
ReplyDeleteim not saying that the nypd appears to be stopping more people than need be, but you did not live in new york city during the crime dominated times of the late 80s and early 90s. the crime was so bad that it almost ruined the city for good. trust me, i rather be stopped by a police officer every once in a while than let the criminals run wild. you also fail to mention that new york city was a terrorist target numerous times in the past and still is today. this certainly adds to the reasons why the nypd is so aggressive.
the nypd is underpaid, understaffed, and underappreciated. they overall do an excellent job and they deserve more of the benefit of the doubt than people like you are willing to give them. and that is the opinion of lifelong nyc resident.