Although these two races comprise of 53% of the total population of New York City, their chances of being stopped and searched on street is quite high. During the last year alone the so called random road side screening comprised of 84% of the total stops being made by the police department personals. Statistics prove a more severe discrimination towards the blacks who were stopped 53% of the time. This not only indicates the bias which is a cause of concern in the age where we consider and not accept racial discrimination but also a violation of privacy, which unlike other groups, minorities such as black and Latinos experience the most.
Although United States has come a long way in eliminating and distinguishing it’s deeply rooted racial discrimination from among its peoples mind, statistics depict enough of a picture to support the argument that the mark is still present. Although the purpose of these stopping is to provide benefit to the overall security of the city, its attitude is quite daunting for those who are innocent but suffer purely on the basis of their color. Stop and frisk is a procedure that either needs to be altered completely, or dismissed. “Equally as telling is the fact that exhaustive searches and studies reveal that only a fraction of the police brutality, intimidation, or abuse incidents occur against whites in this country” (Armstrong). If statistics keep showing that minorities, especially the black community, keep being the constant target of these stops, peace will never be made by the city and the minority communities that are constant victims of this type of policing. Critics of the strategy say it encourages cops to sweep neighborhoods and harass ordinary citizens for minor offenses and opens the way to an us-vs.-them mentality” (Lacayo). In the eyes of these minorities, police aren’t around to help; they are around to cause trouble and hardship.
The NYPD and the communities they work in need to come together in order to reduce the violence that occurs within their very own communities. They should be working together rather than apart. It seems though that people have this mistrust for police now because of allegations that surround them. It’s easy to abuse power. Take for example the many occurrences when the NYPD makes headlines, either because they unnecessarily shot fifty shots at an innocent man, or because a drunk off duty cop struck and killed an innocent pedestrian. These cops weren’t tried not even for manslaughter. They were simply dismissed. Would the same stipulations go for someone who is not a cop? Absolutely not! It is understandable why most minorities just don’t like the NYPD and chose not to trust them. It is because they are more likely to stop get away with a crime that the regular citizen couldn’t.
Racial discrimination has been evident since the colonial era in the United States and is traced back since then. Where the African Americans, Mexican Americans and Asians were treated unequally who were not at par to whites legally, until the mid 20th century, when the racial discrimination on any ground was pronounced unacceptable socially and legally but is still something that needs to be eliminated not just on papers but from its roots.
The main focus of our discussion would remain relating to the unethical and irrational behavior of NYPD cops in their policy of “Stop and Frisk”, which allows the officer to check the personal belongings of a person purely on the way they look, their suspicion of who is a criminal. Residents of certain communities fear police presence because of their unethical practices, often leading innocent people to be the target. “Complaints revealed a confinement of innocent families, unchecked police harassment and abuse of Black teenagers. One mother said that she has two sons, one in college, and is afraid to send them to the supermarket because "it's open season on any Black male teen" (Baylor). In a recent study conducted by the Centre for the Constitutional Rights (CCR) showed that 30% of the time the officer does not have any reasonable ground of suspicion on the personal being stopped and frisked. This study also accounts for excess stoppage for the suspects belonging to minorities.
The police department claims that the policy does restrain people from bringing and keeping weapons on streets. “The defense offered by police commissioners is that aggressive policing (575,000 stop and frisks) is in high crime areas” (Baylor). But contrary to this view, CCR claims that their conversion ratio of finding persons actually carrying weapons is only 1.25%. Since the number is quite low it cannot be said that the policy actually does not work. This might be taken as a measure which may have people think twice from carrying weapons. On that note, these stops cause great concerns in communities. Being of colored skin can be one of the primary reasons for being stopped. Is it fair to people in these communities to have to worry about being stopped just because of the way they look, because of the way they dress, but more importantly because of the color of their skin? Absolutely not, more importantly, why is this continuing to happen? Well the answer could be as simple as, none of the big people really care because; it’s not their families being stopped.
Police brutality is getting extremely common. It has hit the mainstream media and has brought public outrage. A recent case, notoriously known as the Sean Bell case which occurred in 2006, ignited a country wide controversy. On the day Sean Bell was due to get married, he was shot at by undercover cops, along with his two friends. Three bullets hit bell, one shot killing him. A couple of shots got his two other friends and one shot even ended up by the upper level of the train station almost striking innocent bystanders. More than fifty shots were fired. More than two-thirds of those shots were fired by undercover cop Michael Oliver, who was white. Sean Bell who was black, and his two friends, which were black and Hispanic, all got hit by bullets. At the end of the day, Sean Bell was found to have been legally intoxicated but the gun, which initiated everything, was never found. How is it possible that cops shot multiple rounds because of a suspicion and don’t even turn up with the evidence? Now there was some controversy that there was a fourth man. He was never found though. Is it justifiable to shot at a car fifty times? Was it perhaps because they were men of color, and caused the cops to feel as if they were in a hostile environment? Either way its put, one thing remains certain, it was the white cop who shot the most amount of shots.
The Sean Bell case is not a unique story, if not, part of a string of repeated crimes by people citizens sees as guardians. Abner Louima, who is also African American, was allegedly sodomized by NYPD officers. The public again grew furious about the allegations that again tainted the reputation of the NYPD. The issue here isn’t that police are just being brutal; it’s that they are being allowed to get away with it, consistently. Statistics show that crime rates have dropped significantly over the years. Some give credit to the ongoing work of the NYPD to crack down on these crimes, but at what cost exactly. “All around the country, the aggressive, "zero tolerance" policing strategy--which has contributed to New York's plummeting crime rate and is being imitated in other cities--is now getting a second look” (Lacayo). The NYPD seems to be using excessive force even when it clearly does not need to. If the allegations are true about Louima’s sodomizing, than that brings the NYPD’s tactic into question. A pattern is eventually formed through these sad but true stories. Being of any other color that is not white becomes risky for people. Sometimes even the innocent get caught up in the heat of the moment when they are being questioned like if they were criminals. Cops at times even taunt the detainees at times in order to get them to initiate contact so they can arrest them.
It is hard to gain something without losing something. The NYPD's success in bringing down crime has brought with it doubts. Police brutality exists. Police abusing their powers exist as well. Until the NYPD learns how to build a relationship with the communities they work in, they will experience cases where they are accused of being excessive. In reference to the Louima case, Lacayo states "the Louima attack, which is also an assault, has citizens wondering whether one kind of public order has been achieved at the cost of another. In short, is America's crackdown on crime bringing with it an increase in police brutality?" The point Lacayo is attempting to make is that perhaps the excess power given to the NYPD in order to crack down on crimes is probably a main reason why police brutality is up, because cops feel they can get away with it, and in most cases they have.
CCR has also claimed that the number of check points has increased but the crime rate is declining is another misconception. There is possibility that this tactic does work because it reduces the amount of people from carrying dangerous weapons on streets which eventually leads to lower number of crimes. The only reason this policy is under discussion is due to officers continued bias towards minorities and stopping them more frequently purely without any reason apart from their skin color. “However, statistics show greater hard drugs and recreational drug use among whites than Blacks, but the courts are not filled with whites. Also, public drinking of alcoholic beverages is visible outside many restaurants and clubs in white areas” (Baylor). It is hard to argue in favor of this policy at times because of the many cases that involve negative police activity towards minority groups.
According to Bob Herbert, the police in New York City are not just permitted, but rather “encouraged to trample on the rights of black and Hispanic New Yorkers by relentlessly enforcing the city’s degrading, unlawful and outright racist stop-and-frisk policy.” Contrary to a general opinion that people enjoy equal rights Herbert makes an important statement that hundreds of thousands of wholly innocent individuals are suffering because they are exposed to personal humiliation by police. This fact is very aggravating and can pose serious dilemmas for the future of police organization. According to Herbert, young people are routinely humiliated by the police on a daily basis. Humiliation seems to be unlikely to end in the nearest future. This idea has been once accentuated by Jeffrey Fagan, a professor of law and public health at Columbia University. Being a widely recognized scholar this person does not tolerate soothing of large public masses.
In order to prove his point author of this article even conducted a federal class-action lawsuit. This law-suit challenged the stop-and-frisk policy and defined this policy as largely unconstitutional. This conclusion was made on the basis of analyses of the department’s own statistics.
Crime rates have been on the decline since a decade ago. Strong tactics have been implemented in order to tackle on crimes head on. The NYPD to say the least, have been successful at accomplishing their goal of creating a safer environment for the people of New York City. The unintended consequence of a good effort is the constant allegations against officers on almost a daily basis. Perhaps it’s not completely their fault. After all, they are human, and like many, they could be just order takers. There orders come from the top. It’s understandable. The NYPD works for the city. The city is a business after all. It is just not right to stop, search, and embarrass innocent people in the base on the color of their skin. What the NYPD needs to do is brainstorm ways to properly execute their tactics without tainting their already questionable reputation and regain the trust they lost with the many people of NYC.
Works Cited
Baylor, Leroy. "Harlem town hall hearing on police abuse." New York Amsterdam News 101.28 (2010): 17-35. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 25 Nov.2010.
Brennan, Dan. "New York: Police Brutality Revealed in Courtroom, on Tape." World Socialist Web Site. Jan. 2010. Web. 25 Nov. 2010.
Herbert, Bob. "The Shame of New York City." The New York Times, 29 Oct. 2010. Web. 26 Nov. 2010.
Lacayo, Richard, and Jyl Benson. "Good cop, bad cop." Time 150.9 (1997): 26. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 30 Nov. 2010.
Mehta, Dhaval. "Police Brutality Continues in NYC." New York City Metblogs. Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Nov. 2010.
"Racial Disparity in NYPD Stops-and-Frisks." Center for Constitutional Rights. Web. 26 Nov. 2010.
Shabazz, Saeed. "Activists claim that police brutality is alive and well in America." New York Amsterdam News 100.43 (2009): 3-34. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Nov. 2010.
Williams, Armstrong. "A letter to the NYPD." New York Amsterdam News 98.2 (2007): 13 Academic Searches Complete. EBSCO. Web. 25 Nov. 2010.
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