Stop-And-Frisk

So an article recently came out that questioned the legitimacy of cops stopping random people on the street and frisking them for weapons, drugs, etc. For 2009, a record of 575,000 people were stopped and nearly 90% of that total was African-American or Hispanic. As you can imagine, this editorial was debating the issue on whether or not this was fair. On one hand, the author talked about how racial profiling is taking over the world and one person, an individual cannot represent an entire race. On the other hand, the author was saying that the police often stake out the real rough areas of the slums where the majority of that population would be minorities so the popo weren't intentionally being racist. The editorial ended on a note claiming that if the number of these "reckless and unfair" stops increase, "the [police] department will risk alienating an entire generation of people where trust in the law is needed the most".

I agree with the author to a certain extent. I mean, just because a Hispanic person did something bad for instance, it doesn't mean that that makes all Hispanic people bad. But on the opposite side of the spectrum, it does say that minorities comprise those high-risk areas making the percentage of people skewed more toward the minorities as a whole. This is a tricky editorial to comment on because I don't know in particular the basis of how policemen decide on how to pull people over off the street but the article also commented on how some were beaten and abused in the process. Usually if they show restraint to authorities that is a strong indicator that they have something to hide. We don't have this in Herndon, I don't think, but I believe if a person looks suspicious or somewhat dangerous that should be looked into but not just as a basis on their race or ethnic background.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/opinion/19fri3.html