Stop and Frisk: Dispelling the Myth of NYPD Victory

[mitty14u2]

The myth is that Commissioner Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg “won,” and the trial is overturned.

This did not happen. The Second Circuit merely put a hold on the judge’s orders until the appeal is heard in the appellate court. The Second Circuit also chastised the trial judge for speaking in the media regarding the case. This may signal a key technicality for the City of New York to pursue on appeal, because the statistics and substance don’t lie. As the plaintiffs’ attorneys (Center for Constitutional Rights) amply proved in the trial: it is unconstitutional to basically stop everyone of a certain age and ethnicity figuring that, mathematically, the police are bound to catch someone doing something illegal.

Ironically, as it turns out: the White people who were stopped had a higher rate of illegal behavior. What supporters of the policy don’t seem to realize is that it would not matter which ethnicity had a statistically higher probability of, for example, having a bag of cocaine in their pocket- this sort of ‘catch-and-release’ fishing expedition is a violation of the Fourth Amendment right to be free of illegal search and seizures, along with the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law.

http://unprison.com/2013/11/03/stop-and-frisk-dispelling-the-myth-of-nypd-victory/

Ironically, as it turns out: the White people who were stopped had a higher rate of illegal behavior.

[Igel]

1. Of course the white people had a higher rate of illegal behavior.

They were mostly stopped for cause, so the pool of white stopped was significantly less random.

Non-random samples are pretty much useless.