Police Harrassment: "Surreptitious recording of a stop-question-and-frisk in New York"

Here is a very interesting short (13 minute) documentary about New York's completely out of hand "Stop & Frisk" policy. It shows the story of a New York teen that was stopped multiple times on one walk and created and audio recording of the second stop where he was harassed and mishandled by the police. It seems they were trying to invoke a response out of him. One officer threatens to break his arm and refers to the seemingly mixed race teen as a "mutt," before shoving him. I am certain these types of stops, which are very intimidating with cops threatening physical violence, have led to instances of reaction which were then reacted to by the cops with violence, arrest based on trumped up charges, and possibly even death of the suspected. For no reason whatsoever, as quoted from the article:

The phrase “police state” is overused. But if you can’t merely walk on the sidewalk in your own neighborhood without enduring this kind of harassment on a regular basis, I don’t know of any term that’s more appropriate.

It may be a popular term, but I don't even know that it's really overused. It's like saying Nazi was overused in 1941. Saying "police state" comes into popularity for a reason, and that's because that is what we are seeing. If you can be stopped multiple times, or even just once for no reason, and then searched, you are living in a police state.

Also in the video is a recording from a NYPD evaluation where an officer is told he needs to stop more people. Quotas are a very real thing and a very dangerous thing for the public. Quotas are instituted so funding can be requested. In the video, during one of the recordings, you will also hear one of the officers so "who do you think I am?" multiple times. This is one of the things that drives me crazy. Who that person is is nobody to us. They do nothing to deserve any authority over the public. Who is some random cop to have any power over me whatsoever? Their job is to SERVE the public, that is not what the cops are doing. There needs to be a huge revision of the powers of the police. We the public need to demand it, and protest their standards.


Warning there is profanity in the video (the title is derived from the cops own words for the young man). The cop is less than kind with his words.
www.youtube.com...

Source: Boing Boing

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


Hey GogoVic. I posted this story yesterday. It is going to get removed due to profanity. Doesn't matter how important the content is.

CJ

reply to post by ColoradoJens


Ah.. I searched for it. Guess that's what happened. I suppose I can add a disclaimer, I mean, I have seen many full length documentaries with profanity, maybe it;s only if they can see it in the first few minutes (which they will since it's a cop cursing and acting like a jerk). I didn't know there was such a crackdown on profanity. I mean, I know there's a filter, but people use profanity, especially when it's enraged cops.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


Yeah, I agree. It is a very important story and the profanity was minimal and only on the recording itself. I then wrote a rant about how as adults we should be able to post documentaries that have profanity in context of the subject - that too go thrown in the trash bin. Now I am on thin ice because of it and can't even get a response back as to why there can't be a discussion about it. If it is important as this story is, imho, it should be allowed. But it isn't and won't be. Have a great day!

CJ

This is absolutely outrageous!

I'm mad as hell right now. Stop and frisk?! IN AMERICA........AS ROUTINE POLICY?!

I've never heard of this until now. How could this stand up to constitutional scrutiny!?

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This needs to be challenged NOW! People....ALL PEOPLE....need to get angry and get active.

I...I... can't understand this....Nazi Germany was within the last century. AMERICANS fought and died
to stop evil power systems like this.......and we just take it as a normal day-to-day routine?

I can't believe I've never even heard about this till now....nobody's even speaking out...

reply to post by rival


Yes sir, it certainly does exist. In New York and likely other places. It's a very important topic, possibly one of the most important we will see here for a while (others have recognized this already, clearly, and tried to speak out about it) and hopefully the thread isn't closed for the profanity the officer uses in the video.

I agree completely we need everyone to stop complying with these policies and shut them down. There is no reason a random person should have this kind of authority over any other person just because they decided to go into the career of a police man. They should be protecting and serving. Let them go and search for fire hazards throughout the city, not suspicious people.

Originally posted by GogoVicMorrow
reply to post by rival

 

Yes sir, it certainly does exist. In New York and likely other places (I know a few places have banned it).
It's a very important topic and hopefully the thread isn't closed for the profanity the officer uses in the video.

I agree completely we need everyone to stop complying with these policies and shut them down. There is no reason a random person should have this kind of authority over any other person just because they decided to go into the career of a police man. They should be protecting and serving. Let them go and search for fire hazards throughout the city, not suspicious people.

This 'stop-and-frisk' policy is a clear violation of the fourth amendment in intent AND purpose.

NO WARRANT SHALL ISSUE BUT UPON PROBABLE CAUSE....

Judge Dredd deciding that someone looks suspicious IS NOT GROUNDS for a personal search, frisk,
pocket-toss, stop and question, or police harassment of any kind!

These policies have been challenged before and these policies have lost at the SCOTUS level.
There is precedent...

It is the policy here that I am putting under fire. Police discretion to stop and question has always
been available to them to help stop crime. But the checks were in place to stop them from
abusing this power....now the checks are gone under this policy. And to add insult to injury
the officers on the street are being held accountable for NOT enforcing a clearly unconstitutional
police policy....THEY ARE BEING COERCED to break the law.....to dishonor their vow of
service...and to enage in activity directly prohibited by the supreme law of the land--the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights....

Bloomberg needs to be in jail....(I haven't even gotten to the part about profiling...)

Also....this thread's content is to important to censor ATS. To the OP you should (UN) embed the
video if possible and perhaps it could meet the T@C....

Why are the citizens of Ney York City allowing this to happen? I say keep walking tell them to piss up a rope get arrested and then sue the crap out of the department. If enough people do that there won't be enough funding for this to continue. It should not be a hard task when you have officers threatening people on tape and saying they were told to violate rights. It is up to we the people to stop this, but as long as people just sit around complaining about it nothing will change.

what a sad video the cops are more of a thug than the 'thugs' are.....

as a former LEO..ive seen how a small incident is made to look like more, ive seen cops abusing thier 'power' on and off the job and ive heard the 'steak dinner for the most tickets written tonight' stuff...and cops wonder why people dont give them any respect..

Good for him.

If we all started to stand up to the bullies they would start to think twice about their action.

reply to post by rival


In the video a police man mentions a higher up saying something to the effect of "let's go violate some rights."
How is that for outrageous? They also so that they are being forced to do this by the department or they are put on the more dangerous and least wanted beats or ordered to some crappy duty. To me however, that is not being forced to do something and if they got together they can't stick them all in crappy positions. They are unionized right? And they never turn the discussion to the fact they are being "forced" to violate the constitution?

reply to post by rival


It's past the time limit. So hopefully any mod reading this that feels the need to ban will just edit out anything they deem a violation and leave the link there so people can follow it to the article and video.

Could you imagine how terrifying and annoying it would be to know that you cannot even walk down the street without being harassed and groped by the police, who have no problem falsely arresting, beating, or killing you?

The only place in America where this could go on for so long without mass public outrage is poor minority communities. Even on ATS, the home of the anti-police state paranoid constitution thumpers, the stop and frisk threads do not get the attention they deserve. TSA threads have absolutely no problem making it to the front pag though.

The cops in that vid were pigs, and they all still more than likely have their job. Who makes fun of someone because they're father is a traffic cop and for being mixed race? They were trying to provoke that kid so bad, good thing he didn't give them what they wanted.

All this policy does is infringe on innocent peoples rights and increase racial divides.

"An analysis by the NYCLU revealed that more than 4 million innocent New Yorkers were subjected to police stops and street interrogations from 2004 through 2011, and that black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent, according to the NYPD’s own reports"

www.nyclu.org...

Why don't they pay attention to the criminals on wall street? If they started frisking them daily, I'd like to see how long the policy would last....

Originally posted by ColoradoJens
reply to post by GogoVicMorrow

 

Hey GogoVic. I posted this story yesterday. It is going to get removed due to profanity. Doesn't matter how important the content is.

CJ

That doesn't make any sense, people post videos with profanity in them daily on ATS.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


Yeah, they have it in Philadelphia too.

. We have stop-and-frisk in Philadelphia since 2008. And in that year, the murder rater went down only 15 percent, and then it's been creeping back up since. And it's now, you know, it was at high in 2007, when we had 391 people murdered. And then this year - I'm sorry - last year, 324 were murdered. So, you know, it hasn't really been that effective. That's my point. I don't know about New York, but Philadelphia's stop-and-frisk seems to not be worth the cost."

www.npr.org...

reply to post by RealSpoke


I would be horrified in the situation that kid was in. I mean when two cops have you off by yourself and are pushing you, threatening you, and yelling stuff like "you don't know who you are talking to" and calling you a "smartass" all while you are being pretty calm and reasonable. I would have to be worried they are hyped up or on something and capable of going too far and killing me. I don't think cops should be allowed to put you in a situation like that. He would have been justified in trying to defend himself, but he wouldn't stand a chance.

reply to post by RealSpoke


Ah I hate dealing with cops I don't know if I could handle that. It's a sort of terrorism you know? I mean there are bound to be people out there that have been made paranoid by this or avoid going to certain places or going out at all if they are targeted regularly. I considered moving to Pittsburgh.. know if they have it there?

This seems to be a great candidate for a class action suit.
4 million citizens vs. NYPD.

This is the kind of thing that's going to get people killed, both citizens and cops.
People will only put up with this kind of crap for so long.
Then the major chaos will start.

and americans wonder why your foreign policy isn't well viewed across the world.
you have the same exact policies deployed on you at home covertly yet most barely notice.

and the majority can't even accept this can happen in the united states, no wonder you won't recognize the same scare tactics and bullying applied abroad.

police are the biggest gang in the united states, point blank period.

most are in denial and those who aren't don't lift a finger either because then your the next target for a false arrest or bogus charges. fear keeps the system in place

healthland.time.com...

^^ this study tells me one thing, indoctrination.

the system makes it a point that you have to deal with police over the course of your life time just so you know your place and learn to fall back and submit to authority.

some call it a justice system, i call it big business.

Stop-and-Frisk: A Teen Talks | Brooklyn, NY




They can take you to jail for not having an ID?....how is that even legal? What law is that breaking?



Stories of "stop and frisk" -- Reuters Investigates