The Stop and Frisk Policy Analysis

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Eighty-seven percent of stops in 2012, were Black and Hispanic people. Compare that percentage to the amount of water on Earth, only seventy percent. Now, imagine eighty-seven percent water covering the Earth. That would make the world unbalanced and difficult to live in, which is how life is for the minorities impacted by Stop and Frisk. One of the most debated and controversial topics in New York City is the Stop and Frisk policy, and the impact it has on police, Latinos, and African Americans. Stop and Frisk fails to promote justice and equitable society because it creates a society where one group is lesser than another. The Stop and Frisk policy was created in Ohio, 1968, because of the a Supreme Court case, Terry v. Ohio (US Courts). The Stop and Frisk policy was already being acted out by police officers before this court case but it helped determine when a stop and search is constitutional based on the Fourth Amendment, “Under [the] Fourth Amendment case law, a constitutional Search and Seizure must be based on Probable Cause” (US Courts). In Terry v. Ohio an officer dressed in plain clothes stopped three men who looked like they were preparing to rob a store. The officer asked them what they were doing and wasn’t happy with their response which resulted in him frisking one of the men. This man ended up having an unlicensed gun. So, Terry took the state of Ohio to court because he believed his Fourth Amendment was violated, he lost because the court ruled that the officer’s intentions were to prevent a crime. Stop and Frisk negatively impacts Black and Latinos in New York City, because it promotes institutional racism which then leads to negative psychological damages on these victimized minorities.

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