In a landmark legal ruling, Manhattan federal judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practice violated New Yorkers’ constitutional rights. Scheindlin, who according to the New York Times stated “that police officers have for years been systematically stopping innocent people in the street without any objective reason to suspect them of wrongdoing,” plans to […]
Until recently, if you were stopped and frisked, arrested or issued a summons, then had all charges against you dropped, your name and address would go into a big database the NYPD could use against you in future investigations. Now, thanks to a lawsuit from the New York Civil Liberties Union, that’s no longer the […]
Attention, all ye who dare question the wisdom of New York’s boys in blue: the NYPD officers union has a new tool that’s sure to squash any and all supporters of the anti-stop-and-frisk Community Safety Act. One glance at these totally badass promotional pens, to be handed out at a union meeting this evening, is […]
Forgive Ray Kelly if he’s feeling a little under attack lately. After President Obama suggested the NYPD Commissioner would make a good candidate for Secretary of Homeland Security, people have been coming out of the woodwork in protest–there have been demonstrations, editorials in major newspapers, and criticism from mayoral candidates. Now, Kelly is striking back […]
It’s no secret that Michael Bloomberg hates the Community Safety Act–the package of bills recently passed by the City Council that would institute an inspector general to oversee the NYPD and expand the definition of police profiling. The mayor vocally opposed the Act in the lead-up to the vote, and promised a veto and individual […]
In the wake of the City Council passing historic measures to keep the NYPD accountable and Mayor Bloomberg baffling comments about stop-and-frisk demographics, former Executive Directors of the New York and American Civil Liberties Unions, Norman Siegel and Ira Glasser, sent the following letter to all 51 Council Members. Dear Council Member, In response to City […]
Going through @stopandfrisk‘s timeline on Twitter, one phrase jumps out at you: “No weapon is found.” Every five minutes, the account tweets a short description of one of the 685,742 stops that occurred in 2011, and only one percent of those stops actually turned up a weapon. Here’s a sampling: 01/06/11: Police stop a 31-year-old in […]
NYCLU released its analysis of the NYPD’s 2012 stop-and-frisk statistics Wednesday. Briefly, here’s how the numbers look: -The department stopped people 532,911 times in 2012. -Ninety percent of people stopped were innocent, ie. not arrested or ticketed. -Eighty-seven percent of people stopped were black or Latino. -Ten percent of people were white. -In the ten precincts […]
Yesterday we told you the federal civil rights trial of stop-and-frisk was drawing to a close, and that Judge Shira Scheindlin gave an interview saying that she wouldn’t go soft on the city government just because it’s the city government. Today, we’re pleased to say that the judge was true to her word. During yesterday’s closing […]
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 […]
