District judge denies city request for stay

Reforms to stop and frisk will stand
September 19, 2013
Tess McRae
Queens Chronicle

United States District Judge Shira Scheindlin refused the Bloomberg Administration’s request for a stay of the federal court’s stop-and-frisk decision.

About three weeks ago, Scheindlin declared the NYPD’s practice of stop and frisk unconstitutional and put a federal monitor in place to oversee all stops. The judge also asked that the NYPD revisit the policy and come up with a new version that utilizes community policing. In addition, 5 percent of officers must wear body cameras so that the policy can be better policed.

Almost immediately after the decision was made, Bloomberg announced his plan to appeal and requested a delay for the reforms ordered by Schiendlin. “We applaud the court’s decision to insist on carrying out justice for the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who have had their rights violated over the defiance of the Bloomberg administration,” said Joo-Hyun Kang, a spokesman for Communities United for Police Reform. “Mayor Bloomberg would be wise to drop his continued challenges to reforms that nearly all New Yorkers understand are necessary to move our city forward.”

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) and Council Members Jumaane Williams (D- Brooklyn), Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan) and Helen Foster (D-Bronx) were also happy with Scheindlin’s decision.

“We are pleased with Judge Scheindlin’s decision to deny the city’s request for a stay in the litigations concerning the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics,” they said in a joint statement. “As the court noted from the declarations submitted by the Council and other public officials in opposition to the city’s motion, a stay would not be in the public interest, which is in ending the practice of unconstitutional stops. We urge the city to comply with the court’s remedy opinion immediately.”

Though the mayor’s request for a stay was denied, the appeal will still be reviewed.