Thread by @michaelharriot

Many people complain about the inhumanity of Stop & Frisk, but it's not about that

Here's a list of the top 10 reasons why stop & frisk is worse than you think:

1/?

10. First of all, I continue to reiterate that according to EVERY peer-reviewed study, white people use illicit drugs as often as black people. The best data comes from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Black people make up 24 percent of NYC

Yet, there hasn't been a single year where black people weren't the MAJORITY of stop & frisk victims.

White people make up 24% of NYS's population
They make up 10% of people who are stopped and frisked

9. It's dangerous AF. Studies show that the more interactions a white person has with police officers, the safer they are. The opposite is true for non-white people. We talk about people who are shot and killed by police, but we talk about the ones who survive shootings...

The ones who are beaten, tasered, or choked for simply talking back or looking at police officers wrong.

8. It makes neighborhoods LESS safe

When police target people who are innocent, they are LESS likely to call the cops when something does actually happen.

Here's a study from the Harvard Sociological Review showing that 911 calls decline after incidents of police violence
scholar.harvard.edu/files/mdesmond…

7. It puts people in the criminal justice system

There are incidents of the NYPD stopping people because they were drinking in front of buildings they lived in, or talking too loud. In one case, a man was stopped and frisked because the officer said the man LAUGHED at him

He arrested the man but the man was let go by the judge with nothing but a ticket for a discarded cigarette butt.

But the man missed work, so he lost his job. Because he lost his job, he didn't pay a ticket. Because he didn't pay the ticket, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

He was arrested on his brother's wedding day by an officer who was doing security at the event hall.

It was the same officer who locked him up for laughing.

A LOT of people have extensive criminal records because they couldn't pay.

6. It is a race tax.

If the people who are stopped and frisked are overwhelmingly black and brown, then who do you think are paying those fines?

From 2012-2017, 86 % of New Yorkers arrested for 5th degree weed possession (a misdemeanor) were non-white

5. There is one thing about police brutality and misapplied justice that always bothered me:

Why don't cops shoot more white people?

One of the lesser-known facts about NY stop & frisk data is that white people were MORE likely to have contraband when stopped than black people

4. You probably haven't read about this, but one of the lesser-told stories of S&F is the sexual assault of young black boys

In 2016, a black boy was stopped, frisked and penetrated by an officer's fingers. Stop & frisks almost ALWAYS involve underwear searches that are called:

"Stop & Fondle"
But it only happens in black neighborhoods...

A LOT.

The average black male under the age of 25 living in Brownsville is stopped and frisked, on average, FIVE TIMES per year.

Imagine getting used to that.

3. Not only is it dehumanizing, but it criminalizes black boys and normalizes victimzation. I personally believe it increases crime.

How?

What's to stop you from committing a crime if you are ALREADY treated like a criminal?

2. All of these police encounters have real-world implications. If police disproportionately target black boys for drugs, despite the evidence that there is no difference in drug use or sales, then black boys are more likely to have criminal records.

This makes them ineligible for college financial aid, employment, welfare and other activities like child custody hearings, volunteer work and medical care.

1. But here's the most important thing to know about Stop and Frisk:

IT DOESN'T WORK.

There isn't a scintilla of evidence that it reduces crime. It doesn't catch dangerous criminals. It makes cops less trustworthy. It costs taxpayers in civil suits and incarceration dollars.

If you went to a job interview and told the person doing the hiring:

"At my last job, I implemented a plan that put all the other workers in danger; it cost a lot of money; I directed it at the wrong target audience; no one liked it and it failed 80 percent of the time"...

What would the interviewee say? Would they look at the other job candidates? Would they ask for a second interview?

In the case of Michael Bloomberg, the answer seems to be:

"Well, at least he's better than the guy we want to fire."

Correction: Whites are 42% of NYC's population