Despite Editorial Page's Stance in Favor of Racially Biased Stop-and-Frisk Tactics, the Humiliation of One of their Reporters at the Hands of the NYPD is Too Much to Ignore
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
In a gripping first-person account, New York Post reporter Leonardo Blair, an African-American Columbia University journalism school graduate, told of his groundless stop-and-frisk account at the hands of two NYPD officers:
I was just trying to get home.
It was 8:20 p.m. Wednesday,
and I had just finished parking my 1993 Toyota Camry along Arnow Avenue in the
Allerton section of
The
Bronx, where I have been
living with my family since graduating from Columbia University last
May.
Less than a block from my
door, I heard a car's squeaking brakes. I would have ignored the sound if I
hadn't seen an NYPD squad car out
of the corner of my eye. I
was relieved for a moment - until I saw the officers' faces.
Visit here
(http://www.nypost.com/seven/12022007/news/regionalnews/my_crime__just_fitting_the_profile_611557.htm)
to read the full account.
Though Mr. Blair's story is gripping, it is sadly far from unique.
Between January 2006 and September 2007, NYPD officers stopped and frisked 867,617 New Yorkers -- a startling rate of 1,360 every day. Almost 90 percent of those stopped were innocent.
The racial disparities are stark: Police stopped 453,042 blacks and only 94,530 whites during that period.
Mr. Blair's experience shows just how misguided The Post's own editorial stance has been.
Visit here (http://www.nypost.com/seven/11232007/postopinion/editorials/nypds_clean_profile_307788.htm) to read The Post's most recent editorial on the subject, a gross misrepresentation of facts and an affront to common sense.
The next time The Post's editorial writers seek to dismiss valid complaints
against the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics as "race-baiting," perhaps they should
walk across the newsroom and have a conversation with Leonardo Blair.