The Adoption of Stop-and-Frisk in New York City
In 2002, New York City implemented the controversial practice of stop-and-frisk. The adoption of this approach illuminates the ways in the police operate as a tool for social control. Melrose, Port Morris and Mott Haven are all contained within Community District 1, where “intense law-enforcement activity has been reported; for example, in 2006, the local police registered 11,147 arrests and over 13,000 stops – about 1.4 arrests per 10 residents, well above citywide figures” [8]. Additionally, a study conducted by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) showed that “New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 4 million times since 2002, and that Black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics” [9]. Due to the fact that “there have been complaints about the frequency with which the police have been stopping blacks and Hispanics, it is relevant to know that this is indeed a statistical pattern” [10]. The pie chart shown above highlights how the NYPD’s tactics operate in a manner that controls communities of color through racial profiling.
Solis et al argues that “unlike African-Americans who often identify race as central to the structural inequalities they experience, Afro-Caribbean residents must contend with a form of profiling that is tied both to ethnicity and immigration status – even when they are citizens” [11]. This troubling discovery should not come as a surprise due to the fact of the increasing militarization of inner city police has also contributed to outright negligent practices.
Jefri recalls an instance when he was 15 years old while walking next to his brother and cousins who were riding their bikes on the sidewalk. Jefri states that “...We got stopped. We got frisked. They were like, ‘oh, you have drugs?’ And we were like, ‘no, we’re just kids, we’re just teenagers.’ We got a huge fine because of that. It was like $100… They could have just told us, we really didn’t know, we were underage. I think because my brother was 17, it was okay to give a ticket. It was stupid.”