{"id":260,"date":"2010-10-09T13:41:40","date_gmt":"2010-10-09T17:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/?p=260"},"modified":"2016-10-01T13:09:38","modified_gmt":"2016-10-01T17:09:38","slug":"stop-and-frisk-on-trial-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/stop-and-frisk-on-trial-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop and Frisk on Trial, Chapter ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yet another chapter <\/a>was written in the charged saga surrounding the NYPD\u2019s controversial Stop and Frisk practices<\/a> at a September 28th New York City Council hearing on Stop and Frisk operations in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments.<\/p>\n

Why a hearing devoted solely to stops and frisks in public housing?\u00a0 The short answer – which hints at the longer one – is Davis v. City of New York<\/a><\/em>, a pending class action suit that levels some serious allegations against the NYPD regarding these very activities.\u00a0 Indeed, plaintiffs contend that the NYPD has repeatedly and routinely stopped and arrested NYCHA residents and visitors for criminal trespass without an iota of individualized suspicion.\u00a0 None of the arrestees was prosecuted.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, plaintiffs have proffered evidence that these stops and arrests occur more frequently in communities of color than in white or gentrifying communities, indicating that the City of New York and NYCHA has deliberately targeted communities of color.\u00a0 Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al.<\/a><\/em>, another pending class action suit, also alleges that the NYPD has conducted unconstitutional stops and engaged in racial profiling.<\/p>\n

So why was the September 28th hearing newsworthy?\u00a0 Because the NYPD and NYCHA refused to participate.\u00a0 The NYPD and NYCHA representatives present stood idly by, while concerned attendants, including representatives of the NY Legal Aid Society and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (two of the groups representing the plaintiffs in Davis<\/em>), trenchantly criticized<\/a> the NYCHA Stop and Frisk operations. \u00a0(This silence shouldn\u2019t come as too much of a surprise, given, for instance, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly\u2019s\u00a0refusal to testify substantively<\/a> about these and related issues at a City Council budget meeting this past Spring.)<\/p>\n

Paul Browne, NYPD\u2019s spokesman, attributed NYPD and NYCHA\u2019s silence to the pending lawsuits and to the fact that the NYPD and NYCHA agreed to participate on condition that the hearing would not be restricted to Stop and Frisk.\u00a0 Yet, according to the NYT, the NYPD was notified about the nature of the proceedings over a week prior.<\/p>\n

Why, then, did the Department and NYCHA bother sending representatives?\u00a0 Maybe they thought that their presence would improve their image with aggrieved community members and concerned organizations. \u00a0But why the silence? \u00a0Maybe they felt too uncomfortable to speak up in a relatively inhospitable environment.\u00a0 Maybe their silence was a byproduct of caution in the face of two very serious lawsuits.\u00a0 Or maybe their silence was something of an implicit admission of guilt (The Department\u2019s revision (or clarification?)<\/a> of its NYCHA stop and frisk procedures suggests that this might not be too far off the mark), a recognition that nothing they might do or say in this forum could help to exonerate them. \u00a0 Whatever the rationale, it\u2019s probably safe to say that neither the NYPD nor NYCHA won over any hearts and minds by appearing and remaining silent in the face of incisive critiques.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yet another chapter was written in the charged saga surrounding the NYPD\u2019s controversial Stop and Frisk practices at a September […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,45],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amicus","category-criminal-justice"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZrWS-4c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}