Stop and Frisk Essay Example for Free

Stop and Frisk Essay New York City’s stop and frisk program is a practice used by the New York Police Department. This practice is mainly used on minorities which include African Americans and Latinos. The New York Police Department policy is highly criticized for racial profiling. Racial profiling is discriminating upon a certain race, ethnic group, or religious group. I personally believe that the stop and frisk policy is a privacy concern and should be abandoned by the state. The vast majority of people falling victim to this practice are law abiding citizens. Most of these people have done nothing wrong and police officers are using pure suspicion therefore violating the privacy act of citizens. I firmly disagree with this particular tactic by law enforcement, because it does not follow correct protocol. An example of this can occur as follows. I went to visit one of my friends at their apartment building. I came across an officer in the building on my way to my friends room. The officer stopped me and and questioned if I were a resident in the building. After I tell the officer no he informs me that he’s going to frisk. I did nothing wrong and still was stopped and frisked. I was completely innocent and going about my business. Additionally, Stop and frisk is a major privacy issue. New York City police officers are choosing to stop people based on race and not reasonable suspicion. They choose to pull over drivers who are mainly African American or Latino. Very little stops lead to an arrest. Most of the time the person is innocent and has nothing illegal on them. I believe that the citizens are losing the trust in police. They are losing all trust and feeling of protection because they fear of being stopped and frisked. I would not like being treated like a criminal if I were innocent too. Some of these people worry about being targeted by police on a daily basis. Jay Z an award winning artists, was pressured to back out of a collaboration with a store called Barney’s after it was accused of racially profiling two black customers. He had something  to say about this policy in a song called â€Å"Devil Is A Lie†. He rapped â€Å"You seen what I did to the stop and frisk Brooklyn on the Barney’s like we own the bitch Give the money to the hood, now we all win†. â€Å"Got that Barney’s floor lookin’ like a VIM†. Jay Z is basically saying he has the high end Barney’s store looking like the low end VIM store. He does not agree with the stop and frisk that occurred in the store and gave all proceeds to his charity. Furthermore , the aspect that I have gathered from this practice is that it lowered the crime and murder rate. I believe people are less willing to walk around with any sort of weapon on their person. The risk of carrying a weapon or illegal substance is too high. On the other hand people that obey the law regularly feel more safe. Which is how it should be. Stop and Frisk has so many repercussions to society. Many individuals who have experienced â€Å"Stop and Frisk† have said it is unethical. Many citizens feel as though they lose the sense of privacy. In today’s society privacy is important because people do not want everyone knowing their business. If people knew each others business then they would be extremely upset , which could cause uneasiness in a persons life and in social media. In particular, instead of stop and frisking NYPD should take a different approach. They should asses the situation with a level headed approach. Instead of racial profiling, they should give all citizens a fair shot. This meaning police officers should use proper judgement to law abiding citizens. Some judgements that police use are wrong and one sided because they think that minorities are always causing trouble. Police officers should use fairer judgement when making decisions on arrests. My uncle who lives in New York has fallen victim to stop and frisk. He says the officers are allowed to patrol the halls of private buildings and proceed with stop and frisk searches. He told me this is called â€Å"Operation Clean Halls†. This should not be allowed. In Summary, I think stop and frisk is ineffective. People are targeted wrongly because of what they look like. Many citizens should not be discriminated upon because of their race. It is an invasion of human rights if police officers stop and frisk. It is important that citizens know their safety measures. Stop and frisk should not be tolerated by american citizens.