Earlier this week, after years of objection to the New York Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk practice, a federal judge has found that constitutional rights of thousands of New Yorkers were violated. However now New York City officials have taken the first step in appealing a federal judge’s ruling.
The city’s Law Department filed a notice of appeal Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and Michael A. Cardozo, head of the city Law Department made a statement.
He says:
“We have moved ahead with our formal filings. The mayor, the police commissioner and the city vowed to press forward immediately with an appeal – and we have done so. The safety of all New Yorkers is at stake.”
Really? Lawyers now have about three months to file the formal brief.
Huffington Post reports:
Officers have made about 5 million stops in the past decade under the program, mostly of black and Hispanic men. About half are frisked. Only about 10 percent end in arrest and a weapon is recovered a fraction of the time.
A class-action lawsuit argued the department was wrongly targeting minorities and that officers were pressured to make stops by their superiors.
Judge Shira Scheindlin agreed in a lengthy opinion issued Monday, finding that police made street stops based on race and ordered changes to officer training, discipline and supervision be made.
Mayor Bloomberg called the ruling unfair and warned that it will damage the NYPD’s success in fighting violent crime. Ughhhh.
Hopefully a fair decision is made that eliminates racial profiling and can protect ALL New Yorkers!
SOURCE: Huff Post
