Class Action Lawsuit Moves Forward in NYPD’s Stop and Frisk Policy

On Wednesday, Oct. 10th 2012, a federal appellate denied New York City’s request to repeal a class action lawsuit challenging racial profiling in the city’s controversial stop and frisk policy.

According to Bed-Stuy Patch:

Floyd v. City of New York, is a federal class action lawsuit, led by the Center for Constitutional Rights, filed against the New York City Police Department and the City of New York challenging NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy. The Center calls the practice unconstitutional and racial profiling against black and Latino males.

On October 26, 2010, CCR released an expert report (PDF) for Floyd. The report showed that although they account for only 4.7 percent of the city’s population, black and Latino males between the ages of 14-24 accounted for 41.6 percent of the stops in 2011. The number of stops of young black men exceeded the entire city population of young black men

The stop and frisk policy has been nonetheless controversial. The NYPD conducts nearly 1800 stops a day.

Last year the NYPD stopped over 600,000 people where only 1 percent of those stops lead to an arrest.

Police commissioner, Ray Kelly, has defended this policy as he believes it will help fight against crime.

He also blasted community leaders for what he believes is a lack of response to the recent spate of gun violence.

“Many of them will speak out about stop-and-frisk” but are “shockingly silent when it comes to the level of violence right in their own communities,” said Kelly at a press conference in July.

A recent documentary released highlights the flaws behind the stop and frisk policy, showing that is more detrimental than good.

The documentary talks to several police officers on how they are forced to make these stops, calling them 250’s, on innocent people – in particular people of color.

Photo by Rosemary Ketchum

In the documentary, it also plays an account a Hispanic young man had with police as he was walking home from his girlfriend’s house.

You can hear the police calling the young man a racial slur (mutt), and disrespecting his father who is a traffic cop.

The documentary is flooring as it shows proof and highlights the racial profiling associated with this policy.

Something definitely needs to be done as innocent people of color continue to be harassed.

The trial for the class action law suit is scheduled for March 18, 2013.