Officer Adhyl Polanco dared ask: "Cuff him for what?"
November 7, 2013
The
New York City Police Department’s controversial “stop-and-frisk”
program was a major issue for voters going to the polls in the city’s
mayoral election. The issue drew widespread attention in August when
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin found “stop-and-frisk”
unconstitutional, saying police had relied on a "policy of indirect
racial profiling" that led officers to routinely stop "blacks and
Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white." While she
did not halt use of the tactic, Scheindlin appointed a federal court
monitor to oversee a series of reforms.
In
a dramatic development last week, those reforms were put on hold. On
Thursday, an appeals court stayed the changes, effectively allowing
police officers to continue using “stop-and-frisk.”
Democracy
Now! gets reaction from a police officer who has spoken out about
problems with the program he and thousands of others are asked to carry
out. Adhyl Polanco became critical of the NYPD’s “stop-and-frisk” policy
when his superiors told officers to meet a quota of stops, or face
punishment. Polanco made audio recordings of the quotas being described
during meetings in his precinct, and brought his concerns to
authorities, but he said he was ignored. He then took his audio tapes to
the media, including the Village Voice, where reporter Graham Rayman
wrote a series called "The NYPD Tapes," featuring several police
officers like him. For several years, Polanco was suspended with pay. He
has returned to work on the police force, where he has been put on
modified assignment.
"You
cannot treat the whole Black and Latino community as if they are all
about to commit a crime," Polanco says. "I’ll handcuff anybody who’s
committing a crime. But when you take a male black [and say]: 'Cuff him,
he doesn't look like he belongs here.’ Cuff him for what?"
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/nypd-officer-risks-job-speak-out-against-stop-and-frisk-targeting-people-color?akid=11119.134834.uwuHjf&rd=1&src=newsletter921061&t=15--
SIGN THE JERICHO COINTELPRO PETITION!
Free All Political Prisoners!
www.jerichony.org
No comments:
Post a Comment