A Damning Look Inside NYPD’s ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ Policy

Stop-and-frisk is already considered a controversial tactic employed by the New York Police Department, but a recently released recording sheds light on just how discriminatory the practice can actually be. The audio was secretly taped by a teenager who was stopped and frisked (and more) by NYPD officers. In it, 17-year-old Alvin is heard being roughed up, threatened and demeaned by three officers, for being, as one put it, “a fucking mutt.”
Here’s some background on the controversial stop-and-frisk policy from Gawker:

Though the tactic, which finds police arbitrarily seizing citizens and forcing them to empty their pockets and bags, has faced legal challenges more than once, and while its use is on the decline, it continues to be a go-to way for police to patrol predominantly minority areas. Of the nearly 700,000 stop-and-frisks performed in 2011, 84 percent were conducted on blacks and Latinos, and only 2 percent turned up contraband, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Essentially, what stop-and-frisk has become is a legal way for police officers to harass and demean young male minorities, the vast majority of whom turn out to be totally innocent.

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