The Effectiveness of Stop & Frisk

The mainstream media does a very good job of framing issues. The recent criticism of the NYPD's Stop and Frisk policy is a great example of this. We are told again and again by liberal pundits that Stop and Frisk isn't effective (basically the same criticism these pundits will use to criticize war and other atrocities like torture). In a recent article for the Guardian, John Liu frames Stop and Frisk as being ineffective:

The numbers don't lie: New York City police have conducted 5m "stop-and-frisk" searches since 2002. More than 86% of individuals targeted were black or Hispanic, and 88% were innocent of any crime. The stop-and-frisk tactic is clearly discriminatory, often humiliating, and totally ineffective. It must be abolished.

The numbers don't lie, but they certainly don't tell the whole story. To believe, as Liu clearly does, that Stop-and-Frisk is ineffective we'd have to believe that it's intent is to stop crime. We would have to believe that the NYPD are complete bufoons who don't know the basic facts that Liu sums up for us. We would have to assume, as liberals often do, that this is a wrong-headed policy carried out by an otherwise benevolent and good institution: the NYPD.

The real intent behind Stop and Frisk isn't hard to comprehend if you're a youth of color in New York City, but thankfully NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly actually spelled it out in a meeting with New York State Senator Eric Adams:

Kelly “stated that he targeted and focused on that group because he wanted to instill fear in them that every time they left their homes they could be targeted by police,” Adams said.

In other words the intent has never had anything to do with crime. Ray Kelly and the NYPD wanted to instill fear in communities of color and they've done that. Couple Stop and Frisk with the indiscriminate murders of kids like Kimani Gray and Ramarley Grahm and many more people of color and the NYPD has been very effective at terrorising the people of New York City.

Stop and Frisk needs to be abolished; not because it's ineffective, but precisely because it is effective. Bloomberg's Army has terrorized the people of New York City long enough.

 

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