A Violation of Civil Rights

NYPD Stop and Frisk Policy, is it a basic policy crime fighting policy or is it more a violation of constitutionally guaranteed rights. Stop and frisk has been going since 1998 in an effort to combat crime before it initially happens but through this effort statistics have unfortunately led to racial profiling. The statistics are that according to witnesses and victims 68.5% of all murders, rapes, robberies, and assaults are black. Discrimination and racial profiling is inexcusable, the NYPD should be impartial and act solely on their knowledge and investigative experience, not on the color of an innocent civilians skin. Over 50% of people subject to stop and frisk were minority last year; 55% Blacks, 30% Hispanics, and 15% Whites, blacks make up 24% of New Yorkers and whites make up 34.5%. Out of all of these stops only 4% of them led to an arrest, violation of civil rights for barely any productivity. This means that approximately 21,000 arrests were made out of 508,540 people stopped. The police increase their presence in the high crime areas, due to residents complaining and asking for it, to protect innocent civilians from criminal harassment. The conflict is that in the eyes of the law abiding residents the same police become suspects of harassment and the majority of innocent civilians become victims to it and to the indiscretion and partial unreasonable judgement of police officers. Then being victimized by the "protector" and "law-enforcement" officer leads to cumulative tensions between innocent law abiding residents, the majority in these high crime areas, and police officers patrolling the neighborhood.






http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-02-07hm.html
http://blogs.nyls.edu/khiggins/2007/02/the_nypd_stop_and_frisk_data.html