Six New York State Senators donned hoodies during a legislative meeting yesterday. Pictured in the photo are Sen. Kevin Parker, D-Brooklyn, left, Sen. Bill Perkins, D-New York, center, and Sen. Eric Adams, D-Brooklyn.
According to the New York Magazine’s News & Features section, the showing of hoodies was not just to show solidarity with Trayvon Martin, but also to protest the police’s “stop and frisk” procedures which are notoriously race-based.
Sen. Eric Adams, a former NYPD sergeant, said the following about the procedure:
It was born here in New York City and now it has cascaded all the way down to the southern coast of Florida. The stop-and-frisk policy gave birth not only to police officers believing that a person of color is automatically a criminal, now it has grown into the civilian patrol units.
The article goes on to state:
In 2011, New York City cops “stopped, questioned, and frisked” a record 684,330 people — 87 percent of them black or Hispanic. Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries commented, “While Jim Crow may be dead, he’s still got some nieces and nephews who are alive and well.”
Top Photo: Mike Groll/AP
Bottom Photo courtesy Sen. Eric Adams’ Facebook Page