The NYPD’s “stop-and-frisk” policy went on trial yesterday in a federal class-action case that claims that many of the more than 4 million stops under Mayor Bloomberg were illegally “race based” and “unconstitutional harassment.”
In opening statements at the Manhattan nonjury trial, city lawyers countered that “crime drives where officers go, not race” and that stopping, questioning and frisking potential criminals drives down crime.
“The NYPD has laid siege to black and Latino neighborhoods over the past eight years,” said Darius Charney, lawyer for lead plaintiffs David Floyd, Lalit Clarkson, Deon Dennis and David Ourlicht.
Charney told Judge Shira Scheindlin that 85 percent of the police stop-and-frisks since 2005 have been of blacks and Hispanics, who account for less than 50 percent of the population.
But city lawyer Heidi Grossman noted that in Staten Island’s largely white 122nd Precinct, most people stopped are white. And the reverse applies in Brooklyn’s largely black 73rd Precinct, she said.
Devin Almonor — who was 13 when he was stopped near his Hamilton Heights home — testified, “I believe I was stopped because of my race.” He said getting patted down and handcuffed left him crying and in “fear.”