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Stop And Frisk Analysis

Decent Essays

The practice of the NYPD in which police officers stop and question a person, then frisk them for weapons and other contraband is known as the policy: stop and frisk. This controversial policy has garnered much debate in recent years. With the continuation of the practice, many Americans have begun to fear going out on the streets, in risk of encountering a police officer. On many social media sites, there are public videos of these encounters where police brutality is present during frisking. Many people, including myself, that watch these videos feel angry and embarrassed that in our world this is happening. Something needs to be done to stop this. Starting with the Floyd vs. City of New York court case, the judge, Shira Scheindlin ruled …show more content…

Police officers would target communities of color, such as black and Latino communities. Criminalizing bystanders based only upon racial discrimination is a violation of their rights and our rights. The Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal.” Are our rights any different than others just because we are different races?
In 2012, several people gathered in a silent protest to protest against the NYPD’s stop and frisk policies. Throughout the march, police officers have pushed protesters to leave the intersection and at some point shoved them to the ground. The protest began when Mayor Bloomberg stated that reduced crime and got guns off the street. This argument set forward by Bloomberg is not right at all. Stop and frisk policies not only victimize certain groups of people, but humiliate them. The way the police demonstrated their authority at the protest cannot be ignored.
In 2013, Mayor Bloomberg stated that “we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little.” This is clearly not the case in many stop and frisk instances where 56% of the people being stopped were black and 29% were Latino, with only 11% being white. According to NYPD reports, “nearly nine out of ten stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent.” Mayor Bloomberg’s comments were outrageous and he didn’t deserve his position as mayor of the City of New

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