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Know Your Rights
Source: SILive.com
Subject: Immigration
Type: Media Coverage

Stop-and-frisk, based on bias, can’t ever be justified

Last month, NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks III, in a forum put together by Eye Openers Youth Against Violence [including Make the Road New York] from Port Richmond, endorsed the policy of “stop-and-frisk” as fair and just, while emphasizing that it be “done properly” as a way of legitimizing the persecution and harassment of countless black and Hispanic youths.

But contrary to this statist stance is the fact that this policy is unconstitutional and contradicts the equal treatment of all people regardless of race.

Stopping people of color in low-income neighborhoods cannot be conducted legitimately because it is entirely based on racial bias and stereotypes; it’s not about seeking out suspects for alleged crimes.

A person’s skin color is not probable cause and stopping to persecute an individual simply because of how they look is unlawful.

The question isn’t whether stop-and-frisk can be implemented properly but whether it can, under any moral grounds, be implemented at all.

Rather than accept this racist policy, we should applaud the young people who put this forum together in search of justice.

To view the original article, click here.