This is part two of theGrio series on New York City’s decade-long stop-and-frisk practice, which has prompted an ongoing class action lawsuit. Click here for part one of the series.
Plaintiffs have taken the witness stand and recounted incidents of being stopped and frisked during the ongoing class action lawsuit, Floyd v. City of New York, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The practice allows police officers to stop and question individuals based on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. It also grants officers the right to conduct a search if they suspect that an individual may be carrying a weapon or drugs.
The CCR argues that these searches often go beyond what is permitted. They also say that the stop-and-frisk practice violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures and the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections against racially-discriminatory policing.
They say the current practice uses discriminatory targeting and harassment by stopping African-American and Latinos without regard to whether such reasonable suspicion exists or not.
The city’s take on stop-and-frisks
However, city officials say they don’t allow racial profiling and assert that officers don’t stop people without reasonable suspicion. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former NYPD Chief Joseph Esposito are among the city’s most vocal supporters of stop-and-frisks. They both defend the practice, saying it is effective in deterring crime.
Esposito testified that although the number of stops has increased by almost 700 percent over the years, the number of crimes has dropped by forty percent.
According to The New York Times, Mayor Bloomberg says that stop-and-frisks are “clearly a life-saving practice.”
Thirty-year-old Frantz Jerome disagrees. He told theGrio about his own experiences being stopped and frisked and how he hopes for change in the practice.
Jerome, co-founder of The Peace Poets – an organization set to educate the NY community through art — says he has been stopped over 20 times and frisked close to 10.
A personal stop-and-frisk experience
In December of 2010, upwards of 11 o’clock at night, Jerome says he walked out of an apartment building located in, what he says, was a majority black and Latino neighborhood in the Bronx.
“I was leaving the headquarters of the Peace Poets when a white van pulled up on the sidewalk and almost hit me. Then two uniformed officers got out and walked towards me.”
Jerome says he was interrogated by the police and asked questions on which building he had just exited, where he was going and if he had any weapons on him.
“They asked me what I did for a living and they made fun on what I was wearing. They asked me why I was dressed like a weirdo and asked me to take off my jacket and hand over my book bag.”
From there, Jerome says he was asked to put his hands on the wall and was immediately frisked.
“They checked in my hair, put their hands in my pockets and patted me down,” he says. “I also noticed that they wrote ‘suspicious clothing’ on their notepad.”
Jerome says they then took his ID, checked it and returned it minutes later. At that time, he was allowed to go on his way.
“I was angry, to be stopped in a community where I had once felt comfortable in and have people see me,” Jerome says of the incident. “It felt like a violation of my civil rights. I felt humiliated.”
A second ‘humiliating’ account
On a separate occasion over a year ago, Jerome was stopped in what he calls another “humiliating” experience, which has also recounted in a video piece by Yale Law School.
It was around 1 p.m. and Jerome was driving down 161 St. and Grand Concourse in the Bronx. He says he had just picked up his fiancee at the time, Aisha Jordan, who rode in the passenger’s seat. Their friend, and wedding planner, sat in the back.
Soon, Jerome had approached a red traffic light. Moments later, he says a police car pulled up alongside him.
“We were in our car as the police pulled up next to us,” Jerome says. “Then the officers came out, aggressively, and one yelled for me to turn off the car and throw the keys on the dashboard.”
Meanwhile, Jerome says their vehicles had stopped traffic in two lanes on the street.
Three officers had exited the car and stationed themselves directly across from each of the passengers, Jerome says.
“There was an officer at each window,” he says. “I noticed they had also unbuttoned the handle to their firearm.”
From there, Jerome says he, his wife and friend were asked to show ID and registration. During that moment, Jordan says she asked an officer for their cause of reason in being stopped.
“The officer was unresponsive so I told my wife, ‘We didn’t do anything’” Jerome says. “Then the officer said, ‘Don’t say you didn’t do anything.’ I didn’t know what to think of that.”
After scanning their IDs, Jerome says an officer then returned to the car and cited that the tassel he had hanging on the rearview mirror was an obstruction of view.
The tassels were from Jordan’s college graduation ceremony in 2009.
“There was definitely shock, followed by recognition of fear which then became humiliation, which then became anger,” Jerome says, thinking back to the emotions he felt at the time.
Hopes for change as trial nears end
Because of these incidents, and the several others Jerome says he has faced, he has decided to attach his name to the ongoing class action law suit.
Jerome says he has been more vocal in telling his stories to young community members to help raise awareness.
He is also an alumnus of Brotherhood/SisterSol — a comprehensive youth development organization focused on providing support, education and other helpful resources to young people.
Jerome — who says he has never been convicted of any misdemeanor or crime and states that his father is an NYC detective, says in the Yale Law School Video: “I knew my father was a cop so I inherently trusted every cop.”
Now, he says many of those feelings have changed as he joins a large community of blacks and Latinos who have become distrustful of the police.
Debate surrounds enacting inspector general position
As the trial wraps up its sixth week in court, Jerome is hoping it will end in some sort of reform in law enforcement tactics and procedures.
“Ideally, given the history of these things and of this system I can only hope that they create the inspector general position so police can be policed,” Jerome says.
The inspector general position is one that is tied to proposed bill by current NYC mayoral candidates who hope to appoint a representative to act as a watchdog and oversee police practices in the NYPD.
While Jerome believes the position would help monitor law enforcement, Mayor Bloomberg is vowing he will veto the proposal, if needed.
“Make no mistake about it: This bill jeopardizes that progress and will put the lives of New Yorkers and our police officers at risk,” he said, according to an article on NBC New York.
TheGrio has repeatedly contacted NYPD officials and the mayor’s office for comment on the stop-and-frisk practice and has not heard back.
Despite the mayor’s sentiments, Jerome says he still advocates for change in policing and hopes that the NYPD can bring back the community’s trust of the police.
“People need to genuinely feel a sense of safety around police officers and right now, it most certainly does not feel that way.”
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