In the Media

Public allowed to sue NYPD cops over stop-and-frisk profiling, state judge rules

City police unions have failed in their attempt to prevent NYPD officers from being sued by people targeted by the city's stop-and-frisk policy.
06/18/2014
Daily News

City police unions have failed in their attempt to block a local law that makes it easier for the public to sue cops for racial profiling.

State Supreme Court Justice Anil Singh, in a decision released Wednesday, upheld the Community Safety Act passed by the City Council last year.

The Council’s legislation was neither too vague nor was it preempted by state criminal procedure law, as its opponents had charged, Singh ruled.

This is How Many Blacks and Latinos Will Be Arrested For Pot Possession in 2014, Compared With Other Races

06/02/2014
The Village Voice

Newly-installed NYPD Inspector General Philip Eure has been on the job for less than a week, but there are no shortage of demands on his attention. Last week, we reported on the first complaint filed with Eure's office, nestled in the Department of Investigation, by Robert Jereski on behalf of activists including himself whose organizations had been infiltrated and surveilled by undercover NYPD officers.

City drops lawsuit against racial profiling law from stop-and-frisk package

03/07/2014
Metro NY

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday that the city would abandon its lawsuit against a controversial law that expand the city’s anti-profiling laws.

The case was a leftover from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who along with police unions sued to stop the bill due to concerns that it would muddle the courts by allowing plaintiffs to sue individual officers.

Serpico praises work of NYPD stop-and-frisk whistleblower

02/10/2014
Register-Star

COLUMBIA COUNTY — The changes in the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy announced last week took place in part because of three whistle-blowing officers: Pedro Serrano, Adrian Schoolcraft and Adhyl Polanco. All of them faced threats and intimidation. Polanco was suspended for several years with pay when he spoke out in the press against the stop-and-frisk practices, because of the racial profiling he said they allowed.

Turning the page on ‘stop and frisk’ in NYC?

02/05/2014
Al Jazeera America

NEW YORK – Lalit Clarkson pushed his daughter’s stroller down a street in the Bronx last Sunday. He was walking through the same neighborhood while on lunch break in 2006, when he was stopped by New York City police officers.

“My story, in some ways, is no different than other young man’s story that grows up in this city,” Clarkson said. “Walking down the street, you should not be harassed for doing nothing. And this is the daily life for black and brown people across the country.”

Civil rights community backs stop-and-frisk reforms

01/31/2014
USA Today

The civil rights community applauded a move by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to settle the legal battle over controversial stop-and-frisk policies and reform the practice that some said unfairly targeted minorities.

Under the agreement with plaintiffs, a court-appointed monitor will oversee the police department's reform of stop-and-frisk for three years. The city also will work with "community stakeholders" to make sure people who have been impacted by stop-and-frisk help shape reform.

De Blasio flexes progressive muscle in stop-and-frisk case

01/30/2014
MSNBC

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, sticking to a campaign promise to chip away at New York City’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy, announced on Thursday that the city has filed paperwork to drop the city’s appeal to a federal judge’s ruling that the city had violated the constitutional rights of innocent minorities.

The announcement could be the first steps in reforming the much maligned tactic.

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