Just imagine being outside enjoying the sun with your friends. People are playing basketball, laughing and just having fun when suddenly a police officer parked his car to scan the area. He walks up to the group of guys and ask, “What they are up to”. You reply, “Just chilling, playing some basketball”. The police officer asks to frisk you and your friends because he has a feeling that a crime is about to be committed. Can you imagine living like that? Well that’s a reality for most minorities living in New York City. Stop, Question and Frisk is part of their daily life.
Stop, Question and Frisk (SQF) is a program that was created by the New York Police Department (NYPD) in hope to reduce crimes. Stop and Frisk gives police officers the right
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New York Police Department’s own report show that stop-and-frisk is a form of racial profiling. The police are stopping and harassing thousands of innocent people all because of their skin color and status in society. Looking at the reports, as much as nine out of ten people who have been Stopped and Frisked have been innocent; according to the NYPD’s own reports.
Over the same period that police stops were increasing in New York City, crime rates were falling. Burglary rates fell by half over the period and robbery rates dropped almost as much. “Whereas SQF critics argue that the policy is ineffective because so few suspects are arrested or found carrying weapons or contraband, police officials argue just the opposite”(Rosenfeld, Fornango). NYPD responded by suggesting that the reason is because people know they will be stopped. They argued that this shows the effectiveness of stop and frisk, saying the practice has prevented people from carrying guns on the street. Since people know that the likelihood of being stop is high, they will not carry guns. “We think it is a prescriptive result we may be seeing,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne, according to The New York Times. The question is how do we know the decline is from Stop and Frisk? How effective is it if majority of the stops that result from Stop and Frisk end up as innocent from any wrongdoings? Even if it was the case, reducing crime is does not justify police actions that are clear violations of citizens' constitutional right against illegal searches. You just cannot dismiss the clear violation of the Fourth Amendment that this procedure