F*** (Film) the Police!
I recently found myself in a conversation with three White males. As we made small talk, one asked me, “So what do you think of this Stop and Frisk thing?” I took a moment before responding and asked, “What do you think about it?” The questioner responded, “I don’t know. Seems unfair. But doesn’t it make New York safer?”
Unfair? Yes. A safer NYC? Definitely not. I reminded my chat mate that only 2 percent of stops result in contraband being found and that 88 percent didn’t end in any summons or arrest. I told them by any metric it wasn’t effective policing but it could be seen as effective harassment of Black and Latino youth in New York City.
The men’s eyes began to widen as I rattled off statistics and expressed my concern for my younger brothers and sisters who were too often viewed as the embodiment of delinquency by the New York Police Department. One man responded, “That sucks!” I responded, “Until people who are not likely to be stopped and frisked begin to conscientiously object to it, this practice is going to continue.”
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