A US Federal judge has given the status of a class action suit to the claim demanding a revision of the method of street searches employed by New York police.
This decision has become a victory of American human rights activists who always stated that this method had an openly racist nature. Indeed, according to statistics, 9 out of 10 pedestrians searched in New York streets are Afro-Americans or Hispanic Americans.
New York activists have been struggling against law enforcers’ dubious methods for a long time. In 2008, the New York police, the City Mayor and the City Administration as a whole were accused of regular violations of human rights granted by the First and Fourth Constitutional Amendments. The status of a class action suit will allow groups of citizens to join demands of reviewing the legality of such measures.
The City Administration and Police Department tried to appeal against the human rights activists’ demand, arguing that street searches were a necessary security measure. However, in this case, law and criminal experts showed rare unanimity with police opponents. According to statistical data, the number of detentions of Afro-Americans in 2011 exceeded the size of the Afro-American population in New York, while 9 out of 10 detained people were not involved in any illegal actions.
Last month, Judge Shira Scheindlin announced that the evidence of Jeffrey Fagan, a Columbia University criminologist who discovered that, from 2004 to 2009, police carried out 150,000 detentions contradicting the Constitution, will be included in the case. At the same time, the New York Civil Liberties Union, one of the main opponents to the controversial measure, states that street searches have not even reduced the number of illegal firearms in the city streets.
Still, the city police continue to insist that the practice of random detentions and searches has made New York one of the safest US cities. New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who recently called the searches ‘dubious practice’, is now ready to protect them tooth and nail. He states that street searches have drastically reduced the number of murders.
It may be true that random detentions of suspicious subjects can really make potential criminals give up carrying firearms, thus reducing the number of crimes. However, this practice undoubtedly violates citizens’ rights and moreover, plants the seeds of distrust of police and authorities as a whole in US society.
In this context, taking the statistical data into consideration, the public has a serious reason to accuse police of undisguised racism, which is unlikely to promote stability in the dialogue between the authorities and citizens. Moreover, New York law enforcers regularly hear well-founded accusations of race discrimination. Suffice it to remember the shameful incident in 2011 when police shot down a black old man who had called an ambulance and refused to open the door to police which arrived instead of doctors. The murdered man’s niece who lived next door gave evidence that before opening fire the policemen used openly racist epithets addressing their victim.
The unanimity of judges and experts means that this time, human rights activists have won and police will have to give up their dubious practice. Otherwise, the authorities will risk losing city residents’ trust forever.
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