Vol. 76/No. 9      March 5, 2012

In 2011 police stopped and questioned 684,330 people, a 14 percent jump from 2010. Blacks and Latinos comprised 87 percent of those targeted; Caucasians, 9 percent.

The official numbers of those stopped has ballooned from 97,296 in 2002 when the New York City Police Department launched the so-called stop-and-frisk program. Six percent of those interrogated by the cops last year were arrested and another 6 percent issued summons during the fishing expeditions concentrated in Black and Latino neighborhoods, reported NY1 TV news.

Based on 2010 figures, African-Americans and Latinos between the ages of 14 and 24 are 7.2 percent of the city’s population and 41 percent of police stop and frisks, New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman told the media.

Defending the aggressive use of arbitrary police stops, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne claimed the “stops save lives,” reported the Wall Street Journal.
 
 
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