Mrs. Hillary Clinton, who like the ACLU PA argues police departments have great autonomy, said probable cause, not reasonable suspicion, should be the stop-and-frisk standard.
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Ahead of a first-of-its kind April 29th town hall on stop-and-frisk featuring the Mayor of Philadelphia, his Police Commissioner, the head of the City’s law department and others, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, and Mr. Eric Holder, the former U.S. Attorney General, on Wednesday afternoon here weighed in on the controversial policing practice and offered a level of thought-leadership and expertise that stood in stark contrast to the argument against raising the standard of pedestrian stops made by local officials.
Mr. Richard Ross, the Philadelphia Police Commissioner, and Mr. Suzi Tulante, the City Solicitor, said that in order to raise the stop-and-frisk (or pedestrian stop) standard from reasonable suspicion to probable cause, Terry v. Ohio, the U.S. Supreme Court case that grants cops the right to stop citizens for whatever they deem suspicious, must be over-turned. But, not only does the ACLU PA, whose Deputy Legal Director will be a panelist at the upcoming town hall, disagree with the City’s argument – as does Rev. Gregory Holston, whose church will host the event – Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Holder both suggested that autonomy for police departments to do what we know works absolutely exist.
“We should be looking for probable cause. Some people will be stopped, but it won’t be the kind of wholesale stopping that we see in other places,” Mrs. Clinton, who believes the evidence people use to justify stop-and-frisk doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, said at a North Philadelphia church yesterday during an invite-only event wherein she was joined on stage by mothers from across the country who’ve lost loved ones to police violence, including Mrs. Tanya Brown-Dickerson, whose son, Mr. Brandon Tate-Brown, was shot and killed in December of 2014 by a Philadelphia police officer while unarmed and fleeing.
Mr. Holder, who before the panel discussion with the former Secretary of State had a more than hour-long private conversation with the mothers and a handful of Philadelphia activists, which grew emotional and at a point tense, said it’s not necessary to overturn the case since the Supreme Court ruling grants such wide latitude: it’s a matter of policy.
Mr. Holder went on to say:
“How much of that discretion are you going to use? What are the policymakers going to do? What is the President of the United States going to do? What is the President of the United States going to say about what police officers ought to be able to do? What is the President of the United States going to say about stop-and-frisk? If the President, with all the things that person has to consider, were to come out and say we should really consider whether or not stop-and-frisk is a police technique we should support, would have huge ripple effects. It makes police chiefs in small places and police chiefs in large cities think about whether or not this is something that they want to do. Overturning something in the Supreme Court is one way to do it; electing a President who would set a tone for law enforcement throughout the country, I think, is something that’s more effective and something you can achieve in a far shorter period of time.”
Mrs. Clinton, who a day before her Philadelphia visit won the New York primary, said the Federal Government could “play a much bigger role” in proving incentives to local police departments to work in an evidence-based manner rather than relying on the lowest standard possible. Mr. Holder added that if police departments weren’t willing to work in a way that’s evidence based, and that builds relationships with the community, then they could lose out on grant funding.
“Moral persuasion might not move people, but when you tell local agencies that they won’t get any money, that’ll change things,” Mr. Holder said.
Source: 30dB.com – Philadelphia and Stop and Frisk
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