Vol. 77/No. 13      April 8, 2013

The federal class-action suit was filed in 2008 by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of four Black men: David Floyd, 28, studying medicine in Cuba, but originally from the Bronx; Lalit Clarkson, 26, and Deon Dennis, 37, both from Harlem; and David Ourlicht, 20, from Jamaica, Queens.

New Yorkers have been stopped and interrogated close to 5 million times between 2002 and 2012. In 2002 there were 97,000 stops. Last year it was 533,000. While the total numbers have risen, the racially disproportionate character has remained constant—about 54 percent are Black, 32 percent Latino, and about half are between the ages of 14 and 24. These figures also apply to neighborhoods where the Black and Latino population is 15 percent and less.

“How often am I stopped? I’d say about three times a week,” said Michael Castro, 21, taking a break from a basketball game outside several high-rise apartment buildings on Lincoln Avenue in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn March 24. “It happens to all of us. Same questions every time, ‘Do we have guns? Do we have drugs?’ And it’s the same cops doing it.”

East New York, a predominantly Black and Latino area, has the highest number of stop and frisks in the city.

“It’s a difficult question,” said Elijah Harrison, a 20-year-old African-American, who lives in one of the high rises. “I don’t have much personal experience. I’m not against stop and frisk, but I don’t like the way they’re doing it. I do know it’s racial profiling and I’m against that. Nobody likes that.”

At the trial, Michael Marino, commanding officer in the 75th Precinct, which covers East New York, explained to the court that he “set numbers” for how many arrests and stop and frisks he wanted per month.

Two active duty Bronx cops testified against the NYPD with details of quotas and racial profiling of male Black and Latino youth. One of them, Pedro Serrano, taped a discussion with his commanding officer, Christopher McCormack. The tape was played in court March 21 and you hear him telling Serrano to stop “the right people, the right time, the right location. … The problem was, what, male Blacks. And I told you at roll call, and I have no problem telling you this, male Blacks 14 to 20, 21.”

Lawyers for the defense argue the NYPD is targeting crimes, not minorities.

About 10 percent of stops result in charges, many for possession of small quantities of marijuana. A report released March 20 by the Drug Policy Alliance and the Marijuana Arrest Research Project said of the more than 440,000 marijuana possession arrests in New York City over the last 11 years, nearly 70 percent were under 30 years of age and more than 85 percent Black and Latino. According to the report, surveys indicate use of the drug is most prevalent among Caucasian youth.  
 
 
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