As of March 26, we're $27,100 in the red for the quarter. Donate here to support this vital work
Subscribe here and join over 13,000 subscribers to our free weekly newsletter

Stopped-and-Frisked: 'For Being a F**king Mutt' [VIDEO]
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Nation


The Nation, October 8, 2012
Posted: July 31st, 2013
http://www.thenation.com/article/170413/stopped-and-frisked-...

Exclusive audio obtained by The Nation of a stop-and-frisk carried out by the New York Police Department freshly reveals the discriminatory and unprofessional way in which this controversial policy is being implemented on the citys streets. On June 3, 2011, three plainclothes New York City Police officers stopped a Harlem teenager named Alvin. Two of the officers questioned and frisked him while the third remained in their unmarked car. Alvin secretly captured the interaction on his cell phone, and the resulting audio is one of the only known recordings of stop-and-frisk in action. In the course of the two-minute recording, the officers give no legally valid reason for the stop, use racially charged language and threaten Alvin with violence. Early in the stop, one of the officers asks, You want me to smack you? When Alvin asks why he is being threatened with arrest, the other officer responds, For being a fucking mutt. Later in the stop, while holding Alvins arm behind his back, the first officer says, Dude, Im gonna break your fuckin arm, then Im gonna punch you in the fuckin face. Alvins treatment at the hands of the officers may be disturbing but it is not uncommon. According to their own stop-and-frisk data, the NYPD stops more than 1,800 New Yorkers a day. A New York Times analysis recently determined that more than 20 percent of those stops involve the use of force. And these are only the numbers that the Department records. Anecdotal evidence suggests both figures are much higher.

Note: For more on civil liberties issues, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.


Latest News


Key News Articles from Years Past