A Harlem student named Alvin was stopped and frisked by NYPD last year. And not for the first time. This time, he recorded the encounter with the three plainclothes police officers on his cell phone. According to The Nation, this recording is one of only a few known recordings of a stop-and-frisk.
During the two minute recording, the officers gave no legitimate reason for the stop. They also acknowledged that Alvin had been stopped and frisked a few blocks away on the same day without arrest. Right away, one officer asked Alvin, "You want me to smack you?" When Alvin asked why he was being threatened with arrest, the other officer said, "For being a fucking mutt."
Another officer threatened to break Alvin's arm and punch him in the face. He said he felt like the officers were trying to make him resist or fight back.
Are encounters like this rare? Hardly.
After listening to the recording, one officer commented anonymously, saying "It's really bad. It's not a good thing at all. But it's really common. I'm sorry to say. It doesn't have to be like that."
According to NYPD data, the department stops more than 1,800 New Yorkers every day. More than 20% of the stopping and frisking involves police use of force, according to a recent analysis by The New York Times.
NYPD officials say that stop-and-frisk decreases crime and illegal guns on NYC streets. However, the data shows otherwise. Even some officers are complaining that the stop-and-frisk program has turned into an ineffective numbers game as promotions are at least partially doled out based on how many of these intrusive stops are conducted.
Perhaps NAACP President Ben Jealous said it best. “The tape brings to light what so many New Yorkers have experienced in the shadows at the hands of the NYPD. It is time for Mayor Bloomberg to come to grips with the scale of the damage his policies have inflicted on our children and their families. No child should have to grow up fearing both the cops and the robbers.”
