Alt Press Pick of the Week: Stop-and-Frisk Is a Tactic to Control Minorities, Admit Police
Alternative Press Center
Over at Counterpunch, Ari Paul has sobering details from the trial over the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy. The testimony in the class action lawsuit reveals that maintaining control of minority populations is one of the explicit goals of the NYPD practice. Paul writes:
A police officer even revealed an audio recording of his commanding officer mandating racial profiling with the stops, saying, “I have no problem telling you this…Male blacks. And I told you at roll call, and I have no problem [to] tell you this, male blacks 14 to 21.” … Various testimony over several weeks have confirmed that the police view every single stop-and-frisk as successful, as it is a reminder to every black and Latino male that they are not in charge, the police are in control and that they are being watched.
But as important is Paul’s historical contextualization of efforts to control racial “others” since the Civil War. Stop-and-Frisk is neither new, nor limited to New York City, and is a stark wake-up call that we are not in a post-racial society.
Read the full article at Counterpunch.
