Klarinet Archive - Posting 001168.txt from 2002/06

From: Jeremy A Schiffer <schiffer@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] constitution (was Music vs. drug testing)
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2002 23:13:47 -0400

On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Bill Hausmann wrote:

> I sincerely doubt that police departments make a routine practice of
> searching people on the street for no reason. If nothing else, they simply
> do not have the time. On those rare occasions when they may mistakenly
> stop an innocent person, the process can be expedited considerably by
> cooperation, and turned into a long and arduous process by making a
> "federal case" out of it. When they find nothing, sue them for harassment
> or false arrest later.

ummm... you haven't been to a big city in the last decade, have you? new
york and los angeles had entire divisions within their police departments
dedicated to searching people for no legitimate reason. remember amadou
diallo, or patrick dorismond? they were shot dead by members of the
"street crime unit" of the nypd during the guiliani years. these units
worked by having undercover officers harass people (minorities) standing
on the streets until they (the minorities) agreed to find someone who
could sell the undercover officers drugs.

i live right on the border of harlem, and see cops harass and search
(sorry, "stop and frisk" in cop lingo) minorities all the time (though
not nearly as much under bloomberg), just for sitting out on their stoops.

-jeremy

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Jeremy A. Schiffer
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Columbia University
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