Whistles are being blown on the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk program like it’s the final seconds of an NBA game. A new documentary The Hunted and Hated reveals the NYPD’s controversial tactics and features bone-chilling audio of a Harlem teenager being threatened by officers during a Stop And Frisk encounter because he was a “fucking mutt” and looked “very suspicious”.
The documentary also features officers uncovering the unhealthy department culture that forces them to meet quotas by harassing innocent civilians. The NYPD is at the center of this controversy that the New York Civil Liberties Union considers a constitutional rights violation and discriminatory since black and Latino residents make up almost 90 percent of the people stopped. Innocent inner-city blacks and Latinos are no longer safe in their own hood. Chilling on the corner has become a dangerous activity for people of color.
While New York is at the forefront of the activity, this is an issue happening all over the country and it should be part of our national conversation during the election year.
This is no longer just a state issue, but a federal issue, as it violates the fourth amendment. A young male, possibly resembling our county’s leader, could legally be harassed, beaten up and arrested by officers because of stop and frisk.
If you don’t live in the inner city and think this isn’t a problem for you — you may think twice when it’s your face squished up against the side of a squad car in front of your home.
