Malena Amusa

Stop & Frisk Procedure Under Racial Scrutiny

According to data compiled by New York’s Police Department, more than half of the roughly 508,500 people police stopped and frisked in New York last year, were black. In addition, the number of total stops have increased five-fold since 2002.

Today Rev. Al Sharpton’s said he’s going to file a class-action suit against the Department for targeting blacks. “We do not intend to live in a city where the color of your skin determines you as a suspect,” Sharpton told the Times.

In 2006, police stopped thousands of people in a predominately black section of Brooklyn. Only 7 percent of the stops resulted in an arrest or a summons.

Posted at 8:52 AM, Feb 05, 2007 in News | Permalink | View Comments