Stop and Frisk

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Did you know that Institutions throughout NYC are legally violating Black and Hispanic citizens civil rights? These circumstances are the result of the NYPD’s attempt to protect the greater good of NYC; Stop and Frisk is the policy that attempts to accomplish this matter at hand. Stop and Frisk constantly targets Black and Hispanic citizens, therefore it does not promote a just and equitable society due to it viewing these ethnicities as more likely to commit a crime. The origin of Stop and Frisk traces back to the Supreme Court case of Terry V. Ohio, which took place in 1968. Terry, an experienced plainclothes officer, stopped and frisked three suspicious men; one produced a gun with no permit. This Supreme Court case essentially claimed Stop and Frisk to be constitutional under the Fourth Amendment (PBS Newshour). Stop and Frisk can essentially limits the rights of certain individuals because it gives the NYPD permission to avoid the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. The NYPD is given permission to stop and frisk an individual under the circumstances of probable cause: if an article or substance capable of causing serious physical injury or is not ordinarily carried in pubic places by law-biding persons is present and in plain view, or if the stop and frisk is supported by oath of affirmation (FindLaw). Stop and Frisk negatively impacts Black and Hispanic citizens in NYC because it promotes institutional racism.
The NYPD is promoting institutional racism through carrying out Stop and Frisk. Institutional Racism is policies, and procedures of institutions that have a disproportionately negative effect on racial minorities’ access to and quality of goods, services, a...

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...lice are specifically hunting them, which causes them to lose trust and faith in the people they are supposed to trust to protect them. This is a dangerous result as people wont rely on their police when in a situation that requires the NYPD’s help. None of these impacts of Stop and Frisk attribute to a just and equitable society. The way that the NYPD carries out Stop and Frisk results in a lack of fairness, equality, and justice in Black and Hispanic communities throughout NYC. One of the main causes of this phenomenon is that the police feel like they have superior power over these ethnic groups that are inferior; stemming from the police possessing the ability to violate people’s civil rights under the Fourth Amendment. With this evidence, many would agree that Stop and Frisk negatively affects Black and Hispanic citizens because it promotes institutional racism.

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