Dear Commissioner Ray Kelly,
As a 20-year-old black male, I have to be quite frank with you in saying, your behavior is troubling to me. However, I am even more concerned with the tendencies behind the implementation of the Stop, Question & Frisk policy.
With just a skim review of the New York Police Department’s Stop, Question & Frisk database’s 2011 archives, one can immediately conclude that the practice endorsed by you discriminately targets the African-American and Latino community. Not to mention, the recent news surfing that NYPD officers called a Bronx Latino a “f*cking mutt” during a Stop & Frisk session.
RELATED: BUSTED! NYPD Calls Harlem Student A “F**king Mutt” During Stop-And-Frisk
In 2011, 685,000 New Yorkers were stopped and frisked. 87 percent were either Black or Latino. I could have been one of them.
Out of the thousands checked by police officers, only 12 percent were actually taken into custody for criminal activity, and Mr. Kelly, I can’t quite conceive how exactly this policy is effective in reducing murder rates in our city.
Again, these statistics scare me, I could have been one of them.
Countless public figures and politicians, such as NY State Senator Gustavo Rivera and Congressman Charles Rangel, both of whom I have had the pleasure to work alongside, have spoken out loudly against this racially motivated practice. And last June, thousands of alarmed people in New York City united in a Silent March to protest against the audacity of this effort you consistently defend. Not only have your peers demanded you cease this practice, but the community spoke and the only justification you offered was the city’s decreased murder rate, which you have failed to prove is contingent on the practice. We want justified answers.
I am calling on you to stop the victimization of thousands of innocent Black and Latino New Yorkers and give us back our liberty. Each time an innocent boy, young man, or man is stopped, their dignity is undermined and virtue is tarnished. The feeling is devastating and scars the conscience of an innocent man, subconsciously making him feel like a criminal.
You have promised the community adjustments to the exercise and we have yet to see improvement. Take a moment to stop, question your motives, and be frisked, so as to ensure you do not withhold sentiments of racism and discrimination exhibited in the NYPD’s Stop & Frisk policy.
Mr. Commissioner, I am bewildered that you have continued to move forward with this policy despite statistics which clearly demonstrate prejudice and racial profiling. It gives me the impression that the city I am in does not look to protect me, but protect itself from individuals like myself.
I am not a criminal Mr. Commissioner, and neither are the thousands of Latino and Black men who look like me.
Click here to follow @AmirRowe on Twitter.
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Photo Courtesy: Times Ledger
