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Lawsuit claims racial bias in NYPD stops
Under scrutiny is the department's stop-and-frisk policy
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NEW YORK - A civil liberties group filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the NYPD's practice of stopping hundreds of thousands of people each year for questioning, saying it is racially biased.
The New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit lists New York Post reporter Leonardo Blair as the sole plaintiff, saying he was stopped and frisked by police officers as he walked from his car to his Bronx home last November.
He was taken to a police station, where officers expressed surprise that though he was black, he was not from "the projects," the lawsuit said.
Blair has a master's degree from Columbia University.
Lawsuit alleges racial bias
The lawsuit said the NYPD has stopped people in New York nearly 1 million times over the last two years. It said more than half of the people targeted were black, even though blacks make up only about a quarter of the city's population. It asks that the practice be declared unconstitutional.
Kate O'Brien Ahlers, a city law department spokeswoman, said, "We are awaiting the legal papers and will review them thoroughly."
The police department has said the racial breakdown of people stopped by police is consistent with the descriptions provided by victims of violent crime. It said an independent study reached the same conclusion: that stops were related to crime conditions rather than race.
The lawsuit asks that the stop-and-frisk practice be declared unconstitutional and that Blair be awarded unspecified damages.
Blair was issued two summonses that were later dismissed.
The lawsuit said the arrest is particularly troublesome for Blair because he is an immigrant and any arrest, even an unfounded one, must be reported on immigration and visa applications.
According to the lawsuit, nearly 90 percent of the people stopped in 2006 and 2007 were engaged in lawful activity and were neither arrested nor issued a summons. Between 30 percent and 40 percent of those who were stopped got frisked, according to the NYCLU.
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