Stop and FriskThere is always much to write about here. Unfortunately for this site, I'm focusing on another project. However, the stop and frisk programs are always on my mind.

To give some idea of how bad things are, statistics released by the New York Police Department in 2007 showed that in the previous year they had stopped over a half million people. These we mostly white businessmen. Just kidding!

There is starting to be some organized push back against these clearly unconstitutional policies. Head of the Black Law Enforcement Alliance and former NYPD detective Marquez Claxton has stated publicly that the New York City Police Department's stop and frisk policy is absolutely applied racially.

What's more important is the NAACP is really stepping up. I've long been disappointed by the group. Although they have given some lip service to crack cocaine sentencing disparities, they've been fairly mute on the drug war generally. And why wouldn't they be? Drug felons make such ugly defendants.

Rosa Parks, for example, was not the first person to be arrested in Montgomery for not yielding her seat on a bus. Civil rights advocates passed on two other women. One, Claudette Colvin, got pregnant after her arrest. We can't have any of that. Another, Mary Louise Smith, had a father who was rumored to be a drunk. Scandalous!

Drug felons are, by definition, not lily white. So all civil rights groups—not just the NAACP—have shied away from them. So it is good to see some of them starting to move in the right direction.

Today, the 55th annual Puerto Rican Day Parade is getting political. According to NY1 News:

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous will march with Local 1199 union head George Gresham and union members to protest the New York City Police Department's controversial stop-and-frisk practice.

What's more, the NAACP has other events scheduled. And perhaps best of all—for reasons that go far beyond drug law—gay and black civil rights groups are working together to fight stop and frisk.

The caffeine must be kicking in, because I'm feeling kind of hopeful.


Some of the information in the article comes from (Do I have to say this again?) the excellent The New Jim Crow, which you should read. If you're planning to buy it, click over to FC and use an Amazon link there so I make a couple of cents—as much as 40 cents!