Stops & Civil Liberties

Stop-and-frisk is down 98 percent from its peak, but the New York Civil Liberties Union can’t stop complaining. In a new report, the civil rights group complains that the 12,000 stops in 2017 — down from nearly 700,000 in 2011 — still disproportionately involved black and Hispanic males. It claims that young minorities are targeted in white neighborhoods (Tribeca, Greenwich Village), not just highcrime majority-black and Latino precincts in The Bronx and Brooklyn.

This is just nuts, because stops these days overwhelmingly come only on the basis of a civilian complaint or seriously suspicious behavior by the individual who’s stopped.

NYPD data for 2017 show that, yes, black New Yorkers account for about 60 percent of stops, but that matches the race of perps as described by victims of violent felonies. Similarly, Hispanics account for 30 percent of violent felony suspects and 32 percent of police stop-and-questions.

But, sorry: With just 12,000 stops a year in a city of 8 million, the most powerful argument against the tactic at its peak — that it’s simply intrusive and wrong that innocent young men get stopped repeatedly — no longer holds.

As for the NYCLU’s noting that no weapons were found in 93.5 percent of frisks from 2013-2017 — well, that means that 6.5 percent of frisks did uncover an illegal weapon. That’s guns and knives (and their carriers) off the street, and reason for other young men to carry.

All of which helps the cops keep crime going down. Which most of all benefits minority communities — not just with fewer victims of crime, but with fewer young men sent to jail and prison because smart policing has discouraged them from taking the first step toward a life of crime.

That’s a huge for civil liberties.