Judge: NYC Should Use Philly As Stop-and-Frisk Guide
The Daily News reports that the judge who overturned New York’s stop-and-frisk tactics on Monday pointed to Philly as an example of how to do things right.
U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin, sitting in Manhattan, lamented that NYPD leaders hadn’t followed Philly’s lead and reached a settlement agreement to reform stop-and-frisk, rather than engaging in a drawn-out legal battle. It was a bit of a rib shot to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who last year vowed not to cave – like Philadelphia – to civil-rights lawyers.
“I note that the city’s refusal to engage in a joint attempt to craft remedies contrasts with many municipalities that have reached settlement agreements or consent decrees when confronted with evidence of police misconduct,” Scheindlin wrote, referencing a June 2011 consent decree in Philadelphia that grew out of a class-action lawsuit brought by eight black and Latino men who alleged that police officers had illegally targeted them for stops and frisks.
Civil rights attorney David Rudovsky, who brought the Philadelphia suit, says the mayor’s willingness to work with them puts the city further ahead in reforming the controversial policy:
“It shows the wisdom of the City of Philadelphia two years ago to settle our litigation. We raised precisely the same claims that the federal judge in New York today decided. And so we are a couple of steps ahead of New York, because the city has started to implement some changes in the Stop-and-Frisk program here, under our settlement agreement.”
Back in the DN, Commissioner Charles Ramsey adds: “It’s in everybody’s best interest that any stop that the police make is done within constitutional guidelines.”
