Stop-And-Frisk Video: The Hunted And The Hated

In the video, The Hunted and the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy, New York Police Department’s commissioner, Ray Kelly, and New York mayor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, defend and promote a controversial program that has fueled a very serious social problem. This problem is happening all over the streets of New York City and is definitely violating the rights of citizens. Racial profiling, is the result of NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk policy, where more than 1800 New Yorkers are stopped a day, 20% of them involve use of force, to be questioned because they look suspicious.** This is a social problem because it is unconstitutional and discriminatory against members of society, especially black and Latinos males, ages 17-35. These

minorities are targeted as criminals, harassed, and subjected to verbally abusive questioning by the very people that are supposed to be protecting them – law enforcement. NYPD’s commissioner and Mayor Bloomberg claim that this will keep crime and weapons off the streets, but the unprofessionalism and excessive force they use against a specific targeted population is a violation of citizen’s constitutional rights making it illegal.
Stop-and-frisk incidents by the NYPD have increased 600% over the last decade leading to widespread racial profiling.

Reports have shown very little benefits from these stops, only one out of 10 yield any wrongdoing and only 1% of the incidents involve a subject carrying a weapon.** Yet NYPD’s officers continue with the stops and spend less time fighting crimes and more time violating a civilian’s Fourth Amendment rights. According the video, not all NYPD’s police officers agree with the harassment and damage Mayor Bloomberg’s policy has caused young people and their families. They are not happy with how these stop-and-frisks have tarnished their image, prohibiting them from doing the real work of protecting people and keeping crime off the streets. Unfortunately, the officers interviewed in the video revealed the reasons why stop-and-frisk numbers are so high and talked about the pressure from their superiors to “make the quota.” They claim that they are asked to “hunt” to meet a numeric goal of stops or face retaliation and penalties. They are promised promotions to the next rank for high numbers or disciplinary action for those with low numbers. Many are fed up with the top down demands to fill their quotas but don’t want to rock the boat and fear filing a complaint about police practice or the system in general, would not be

safe.**