Stop-and-Frisk Issue in New York Essay

According to analysis by the New York Civil Liberties Union from 2002 to 2017 about nine of the possible ten people in New York City are stopped and frisked by the police. As an operational tactic, the police stop people at random and search them without any cause or reason. As far as the United States Constitution is concerned stopping and frisking is unlawful and it is an infringement to peoples' basic rights and liberties. This practice was outlawed due to the abrasiveness and the nature it was conducted. Additionally, it resulted to racial profiling as the Black and Latin Americans were a soft target by the police. This profiling and stereotyping on the basis of past records of black or Latin Americans in crime rates is racially biased. The suspicion based on someone's speech, appearance and different behavior is not a justification of relating someone to a criminal or associating with criminal activities (White & Fradella, 2016).

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In relation to that, De Blasio study revealed that a stop for frisking to the white Americans is twice likely to result to a weapon and two-thirds likely for a black person. Essentially, it shows that more white Americans are more likely to break laws as compared to the black Americans. The truth we can't hide from, is that this practice is indignifying and a total disrespect to the rights of the category of the Americans it was practiced. The Supreme Court of the United States approved the stop-and-frisk for weapons only and it is based on reasonable suspicion for engagement or plan to engage in criminal activities. The police officers ought to always consider respecting the citizens right before executing their mandate. Their responsibilities should not lead them to violating the basic rights of others (Messing et al., 2017)

Furthermore, the primary roles of policing are far from stopping and frisking people at random. It rotates around being the overseers of the society and enforce laws without compromising those that break them. Ideally, frisking and stopping ordinary people doesn't reduce the crime rate. The crime rate still stands. However, in recent instances we have seen police officers walk away from their roles and place their lives above those the Constitution gave the mandate to serve, protect and defend at all times. As a matter of fact, most criminal activities in the United States of America have been associated with liberal media and the corrupt cartels that work in the country. The new data from Brennan Centre shows that utmost 80% of the people who were stopped and frisked were found to be innocent or having no connection to criminals. This justifies the fact that stop-and frisk is not important in fighting crime and needs to be abolished (Dixon et al., 2017)

Alternatively, no one will ever wish to go and attend a funeral of a victim of an attack at a mall or any other public place. Life of everyone is sacred and needs to be protected and defended. Ideally, with the advancement of criminal activities and tactics to conceal weapons from security officers, there is need for police department to revolutionize and combat the mass murder perpetrated by criminals. This calls for cooperation for everyone to handle the crime at the preliminary stages (Lin et al., 2017). Conclusively, stop-and-frisk practice brings more harm than good. It strives to split the county along racial lines. This is because of the discrimination in the practice and the indignifying aspect of it done and witnessed in the past in New York City. A country's unity is integral in its flourish. Furthermore, it is unconstitutional practice and an infringement to peoples' basic rights (Hackman et al., 2017)

References

Patton, D. U., Brunton, D. W., Dixon, A., Miller, R. J., Leonard, P., & Hackman, R. (2017). Stop and Frisk Online: Theorizing Everyday Racism in Digital Policing in the Use of Social Media for Identification of Criminal Conduct and Associations. Social Media+ Society, 3(3), 2056305117733344.

Rudovsky, D., Messing, P., & Lin, S. (2017). Plaintiffs' seventh report to court and monitor on stop and frisk practices: Fourteenth Amendment racial disparity issues. Mahari Bailey et. al, v. City of Philadelphia, et al., in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylcania, CA No. 10-5952.

White, M. D., & Fradella, H. F. (2016). Stop and frisk: The use and abuse of a controversial policing tactic. NYU Press.