Big thanks to Upworthy for sharing this heartbreaking video of what is believed to be the first audio recording of NYPD stop-and-frisk procedures, including one cop telling the guy that he’s going to arrest him because he’s a “mutt” and threatening to punch him in the face and break his arm.
“We’re gonna go out there and violate some rights” is a phrase one officer (whose identity is obscured) says is used to pump the cops up to go out and get some “250s” (Stop, Question, and Frisk). And cops don’t have the option not to do 250s, as there is a quota and often payback for the cops who choose to do less 250s.
One quote by retired NYPD officer Julio Valentin, now of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, explains that of the 600,000 people who were stopped, only 1% were carrying weapons, and one of the prime means of selling this program is the claim that they are getting guns and other weapons off the street.
And this problem will NOT get better as long as there are quotes of how many 250s cops have to get and how many arrests are made.
What do you think is the solution for ending this form of racial profiling?
About Joanna Schroeder
I observe that the NYPD is a bizarre police force on several levels.
Start with the entrance salary- about $35K a year…. That is something like $ 135/day…
I would start with raising salaries…..
Who is going to live off of this and for whom this is a job worth perusing?
Now wonder why young cops in this DIY very quickly take on a them & us mentality.
The dichotomy, I’ve seen; the idea that it is a very difficult & stressful job against the reality of so many officers running vinyl siding businesses, studying for law school and retiring with hundreds of vacation and personal,days accrued has to tweak one’s mind.
I also want to add that this video from Vanguard on Current TV shows more ways in which Stop and Frisk in NYC is damaging our young men of color in this country:
http://current.com/shows/vanguard/93558816_how-nypds-stop-and-frisk-policy-ensnares-600-000-a-year-scenes-from-vanguard.htm
It ain’t fair- this was driven home the first time one evening as a gang of laborers from one of my sites were leaving for the day and the foreman suggested they check “for blades”- box knives, utility knives…. Take them out of your pockets and stash them in your lunch pail, back pack or tool bag…. This knife, a shovel & a broom is what they make a living with
At the time, as I have for the past 40 years, I had a pocket knife on me- actually 2; One an EDC (every day carry) of some tactical use as it has a 4″ locking blade, a hilt and can be opened one handed- quickly and the other a Swiss Army knife- I never thought twice about passing a cop while carrying either.
Following up on the subject the advantage of newer model outdoor gear coats was also explained- the new models have so many pockets that the cops miss stuff…..
I have wondered what the bust ratio would be if the cops grabbed up a gang of students getting home from college at Penn Station & the Port Authority on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving would be- I know I always had some controlled substances…
Or swoop,down on a gang of hipster smokers outside any number of bars on a Thursday evening?
I’ve seen this before, and I cannot help but feel like this is incredibly one-sided.
Stop-and-frisk is a bad policy, no question, but the whole “us and them” mentality is NOT limited to the police department. Where I live, in the SF Bay area, many communities have developed a mentality that says “the police are the enemy and everything they do is wrong.” This is unhelpful, especially because these tend to be high-crime areas that badly need police protection. Yet the onus is placed squarely on the police to improve the situation without any discussion about how the communities may need to change their own perspectives as part of the solution.
As an example, there was a protest in my neighborhood a few months back in response to an officer-involved-shooting from over a year ago.
In that particular instance, a young man of color was attempting to avoid fare inspectors on the light rail line, police saw him and gave chase. He took out a gun and opened fire, accidentally hitting himself in the process (forensic evidence showed the bullet did not come from a police gun). In cellphone camera footage posted on Youtube, a passerby can be clearly seen grabbing the man’s gun and hiding it from officers while neighborhood residents immediately close in and begin to harass the police. The young man probably ran because it turned out he was wanted in connection with the killing of a pregnant woman in Seattle. Unfortunately, he died from his wounds.
Fast forward twelve months. I’m not face to face with protesters, who are angry because a man shot himself, while trying to evade police, when he was wanted in connection with another killing, and where locals have a mentality that suggests it’s okay to hide and/or destroy evidence if you see the police trying to stop a crime. What am I supposed to say to those protesters? Why should I be kept from getting to my home because of police behavior that, frankly, couldn’t have been improved in any way shape or form?
Stop and Frisk is not the answer. I’m not saying that.
But you’ve got to be kidding if you think the problem is that the POLICE are the only ones with an “us or them” mentality.
I don’t know how you get a community to change the minds of their members. I wish I did. But I do know that reforming the police along will not improve the situation.
wow my tablet autocorrects badly:
It should be “I’m now face to face with…”
and “reforming the police alone will not improve…”