Stop and Frisk
Stop and Frisk is a legalized policing practice that allows officers to stop, question, and frisk pedestrians for weapons and illegal contraband if there is a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. However, many times there is no such suspicion, and the stop can simply be boiled down to one thing: racial profiling. An analysis done by the New York Civil Liberties Union found that over 4 million innocent New Yorkers have been stopped since 2002, with the practice overwhelmingly targeting young African American and Latino men (like myself). According to official NYPD reports, under the Stop and Frisk program in New York:
- 89% of those stopped were completely innocent,
- 54% were Black,
- 32% were Hispanic,
- and only about 11% were White.