According to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) stop-and-frisk policy has become increasingly unpopular among New Yorkers.
It is a simple concept: We are all New Yorkers and, as such, we all deserve to be equally respected by authorities.
It is a simple concept, yet those who are supposed to “protect and serve” every city resident have had a very tough time grasping it.
The increasing number of New Yorkers who oppose stop-and-frisk — and its obstinate defense by Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly — is the most blatant example of this disconnect.
New York City Council member Deborah Rose adjourned a three-and-a-half-hour evening hearing on stop-and-frisk with a word of advice:
“Be safe traveling home,” she said. “Avoid the police.”
There seemed little else to say, now that Rose and the packed room of hearing attendees had heard nearly thirty testimonies of abuse and harassment at the hands of the New York City Police Department.
Crime rates are low enough that New York can lay claim to being America's safest big city. The police commissioner is so popular that some have urged him to run for mayor.
And yet city lawmakers are discussing proposals to rein in the New York Police Department, including the appointment of an independent inspector general to monitor it.
“My body, my life, as a young brown gay person is policed by the NYPD,” Mitchell Mora, 23, told hundreds of New Yorkers at the rally for Communities United for Police Reform, held in City Hall Park on Thursday, Sept. 27.
Fed up with what they believe are discriminatory practices by the NYPD, more than 800 New Yorkers rallied last Thursday at City Hall.
Among other things they called for is an end to stop-and-frisk, which overwhelmingly affects black and Latino youth and has become the most visible example of police discrimination and abuse of power.
“Stop-and-frisk makes youth of color feel like we are criminals and not welcome in our own city,” said Alfredo Carrasquillo of the Brooklyn-based VOCAL-NY, one of the groups that participated in the rally,
Hundreds of protesters gathered at City Hall Thursday to support the city council's Community Safety Act that would modify the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk practice. The rally, put together by Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), pushed the passage of the legislative package.
Manhattan — Líderes hispanos solicitaron ayer la reforma legislativa del Departamento de Policía de Nueva York pidiendo que se apruebe la Ley de Seguridad Comunitaria (Community Safety Act).
Riko Guzman said today on the steps of City Hall that when he was 11 years old he was with friends on his Bronx neighborhood sidewalk “doing nothing” when a police officer stopped and frisked him.
City Councilman Peter Vallone offered an interesting claim in yesterday's tab. He said a stop and frisk bill being considered by the council could cost the city $1 billion a year. We think he might be over-stating things.