NYPD"s "stop-and-frisk" policing is used to instill fear in youths of color.
On Monday, New York State Senator Eric Adams testified in federal court that NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told him the policing tactic stop-and-frisk is used to instill fear in young men of color.
“NYPD Commissioner Kelly stated that he targeted and focused on that group because he wanted to instill fear in them that every time that they left their homes they could be stopped by police," Adams testified. Over the past decade, the NYPD has stopped upward of 5 million people, nearly 90% of whom are black or Latino.
Kelly allegedly made the remark at a July 2010 meeting with elected officials including State Sen. Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn), former Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), and former Democratic Governor of New York David Paterson, who was deciding whether to sign a bill to block the NYPD from compiling a database of individuals stopped by the police.
Adams told Manhattan Federal Court Judge Shira Scheindlin that, at the meeting, he expressed concern that blacks and Hispanics were “disproportionately” stopped, questioned and frisked by police, prompting the Commissioner to defend the tactic as crucial to preventing violence -- by making its targets fearful of police interactions.
“I told him that I believe it was illegal and that that was not what stop-and-frisk was supposed to be used for,” he testified, adding that Kelly responding by asking, "How else are we going to get rid of guns?"
Though stop-and-frisk is supposed to be used to uncover illegal guns, less than one percent of stops actually do.
Adams, who co-sponsored the bill Paterson ultimately signed, told reporters that Kelly’s “disheartening” admission was proof that “It was not the people on the ground,” provoking illegal stops but “a policy being blessed from the top down.”
Adams’ testimony was crucial to the class-action lawsuit Floyd v. City of New York, which will ultimately decide whether the city has violated the 4th and 14th amendment rights of New Yorkers by targeting black and Latino youths for suspicionless stops. The plaintiffs in Floydhave relied on the testimony and secret recordings of two NYPD whistleblowers who allege that monthly quotas force officers to break the law to make numbers.
Adams served 22 years in the NYPD before retiring as captain seven years ago. He stressed that illegal NYPD quotas for stops have an undue burden not just on the communities affected (many of which are his constituents), but police officers who want to do good.
“Cops want to go after bad guys. Cops hate this,” he told reporters, adding that “Cops are so frustrated they’re now wearing wires at roll calls.”
Adams emphasized that stop-and-frisk is “a great tool if it is used correctly,” but testified that “nowhere are you allowed to use the tool to instill fear.”
He noted that the difference between good and bad stops comes down to the law -- reasonable suspicion that a person has or is about to commit a crime.
“The stops where a police officer was responding to a person who was a victim of crime, or a crime pattern in particular community areas" are good stops he said, compared to “Stops where officers are just responding to quotas, which he said “are terrible stops.” He provided as an example an individual “walking down the block or coming from school,” only to be stopped “Because of the way they dress or their skin color."
Adams told reporters that reforming policing tactics, and stop-and-frisk in particular, is difficult. “The people responsible for enforcing the law are not obeying the law.”
He said Commissioner Kelly is “Out of touch with people in the communities,” and that “Until individuals on Wall Street have to tell stories about their children being stopped we will not see a change in this policy.”
The tapes and Schoolcraft’s story made a splash when the Village Voice published them in 2010. Of interest to lawyers in the Floyd case were those portions of the tapes that clearly reveal pressure officers faced to ‘get numbers.’
“We need 250s” one lieutenant says in a typical remark on the tapes, referring to the UF 250 forms officers fill out for stops and frisks.
In addition to ample evidence that supervisors pressured officers to “get out, get some activity,” as another typical exhortation caught on tape put it, there were other remarks that reflect troubling attitudes towards community members. “We have to get all the f—ing riff-raff on the corners,” as though standing on a street corner were inherently suspicious.
Another disturbing comment was, “they might live there, but we own the block.” http://www.alternet.org/sen-eric-adams-nypd-commissioner-told-me-stop-and-frisk-used-instill-fear-youths-color
http://ccrjustice.org/floyd-trial-updates
http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/04/01/56260.htm
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/lawmaker_kelly_admits_testifies_F8DQIu4NKVwsEm8XvHJgNM