New Yorkers Rally to Call on Mayor Bloomberg to Drop Stop-and-Frisk Appeal, Let Reforms Proceed

On Wednesday, November 6, 2013, the day after the general election, in which New Yorkers voted for a dramatic change in the leadership and direction of New York City, communities, advocates, and elected officials gathered on the steps of City Hall to call on Mayor Bloomberg to end his pointless and damaging appeal of stop-and-frisk reforms mandated this August by a Federal court. Last week, a panel of judges from the Second Circuit Court approved his request for an stay, and in an unprecedented -- and widely criticized -- move, removed the presiding judge, Shira Scheindlin, from both stop-and-frisk cases under her consideration. Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has already vowed to drop the appeal once he enters office. For the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers directly impacted by the NYPD's abusive and discriminatory practices, further delay to the reform process is an unconscionable denial of justice. 

Chauniqua Young, of the Center for Constitutional Rights, lead litigants in the Floyd v. City of New York case declared: "It's time to move from litigation to reform!"

Loyda Colon, Co-Director of the Justice Committee, said of the Second Circuit's decision "This ruling sends the wrong message to cops, that they are above the law."

Council Member Jumaane Williams, lead co-sponsor of the Community Safety Act "Yesterday's election was a repudiation of the way the [Adminstration] abused that [stop-and-frisk] policy."

Congressman Jerrold Nadler declared "We all know that the stop-and-frisk policy of the last decade has been a very bad policy. Racial profiling and other discriminatory policies have no place in our great city or our country. New Yorkers and others have a fundamental, constitutionally-protected right to be free from unwarranted police harassment."

In addition to Congressman Nadler and Council Member Williams, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, Council Member Brad Lander, Council Member Robert Jackson, and Manhattan Borough President-elect Gale Brewer attended the press conference and rally to show their support for reform of NYPD practices and call on Bloomberg to drop the appeal.

For a gallery of more images & words from the the rally, please click here (NYCLU) and here (NAACP-LDF) 

CPR's Press Release on the rally.

Photo courtesy Center for Popular Democracy.