After nine weeks of testimony from about a dozen men who believe they’ve been wrongly stopped and frisked by the NYPD, the federal civil rights trial of the police department practice will come to a close. After each side gives a summation of its case today, judge Shira Scheindlin will review the trial record, then offer her verdict, which may involve ordering changes to the way the NYPD operates.
Scheindlin gave an interview to the Associated Press Friday in which she made it clear she “[treats] the government as only one more litigant,” and would not be giving the city any special deference.
“I think some of the judges are a little more timid to maybe disagree with the U.S. attorney’s office,” she said. They have to prove their case like anybody else. I don’t give them special respect. Maybe some judges do because they came from the office, they know the people there, whatever. I try not to do that.”
(Photo: William Avery Hudson/Flickr)
