It should not shock anybody that minorities are the main targets of arrest for a lot of the crimes within inner cities, and urban suburbs. Crime is just a part of our society, but how we deal with those crimes and the people who commit those crimes is another story entirely. When we think of certain crimes we as a society like to put a face or color to the crime. If it relates to drugs or guns we assume that it had to be a black or brown person. So what do people do? They pre judge that same black or brown person, and assume that because of the color of their skin and where they live, they are the automatically guilty of having illegal drugs, or guns.

            His act of racial profiling people is very prominent in a lot of paces and urban communities, especially New York City. New York City has an act that allows its police officers to judge persons based on the way that they look and where they live, and to “investigate” that person to make sure that they are not carrying illegal drugs or guns. This act is called stop and frisk, which has been going on for a few years now and has caused a lot of issues with the police and citizens of New York City. The stop and frisk act was implemented to decrease the violence of the city, by taking drugs and guns off the street. But it is also causing more harm than good because it is affecting the Latino and black communities the most. Even more so the young male minority population in New York City.

            The statistics say it all, according to the New York City Civil Liberties Union, in 2012, there were 532,911 stops which 473,644 were totally innocent (89 percent). Also 284,229 were black (55%), 165,140 were Latino (32%), and 50,366 were white (10%). The numbers seem to not add up. Why are black and Latinos the main targets? Nothing says that they commit crimes more often than any other race. Another fact is that nine out of ten people stopped by police, are innocent, and that there has not been a major decrease in crime since the act was implemented.

            New York is not the only city that has implemented this demeaning act, Baltimore is another city that has been utilizing this act. Other cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles have also been considering using this tactic to lower the crime rate, and get guns and drugs off the streets. But as The Civil liberties union states “Stop-and-Frisk abuses corrode trust between the police and communities, which makes everyone less safe”. So we need other ways to deal with crimes and criminals, also we need tactics that do not target minority populations. Especially the young minority’s males of inner cities, and urban suburbs surrounding the cities. We can’t keep having authorities abusing their power and making false assumptions of the citizens they are paid to protect.

http://www.nyclu.org/issues/racial-justice/stop-and-frisk-practices  

Javier Rodriguez