Non-Violent Protest Planned Over “Stop and Frisk”
On October 21, The Stop Mass Incarceration Network spearheaded by revolutionary communist Carl Dix plans to descend upon the Harlem precinct in non-violent protest of New York City’s “Stop and Frisk” policy.
The outcry is an attempt to get the police department to change its policy, which the organization cites as unjustly targeting minority groups.
“They stop mostly blacks and Latinos and they will tell you, ‘We’re not practicing racial profiling, we’re holding down crime,’” Dix told NewsOne. “But if you only stop overwhelmingly blacks and Latinos, you are practicing racial profiling.”
According to the policy, officers may stop citizens who are suspected of criminal activity without probable cause. Officers may then conduct pat downs or frisks in search of guns or drugs.
Dix is expected to be joined by Princeton professor Cornel West, who was recently jailed protesting on Wall Street. Both feel the policy is in direct violation of the 4th amendment which prohibits unwarranted search and seizure.
State Senator Bill Perkins agrees. “It is not good policing,” Perkins said. “This is not an example of the taxpayers money being put to good use.”
According to the Civil Liberties Union, last year, 601,055 New Yorkers were stopped by police.
Eighty-five percent were black or Latino.
This civil disobedience demonstration comes a day before October 22’s National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality.
