How 'Stop and Frisk' Is Too Often a Sexual Assault by Cops on Teens in Targeted NYC Neighborhoods
AlterNet / By Kristen Gwynne
How 'Stop and Frisk' Is Too Often a Sexual Assault by Cops on Teenagers in Targeted NYC Neighborhoods
Teenagers are harassed and violated in ways you can't imagine.
January 21, 2013 |
Imagine you're 17 years old. A man with a gun and a badge has stopped you on the street and jammed his hand inside your pants, touching your penis. The girl you have a crush on is watching from nearby. That's the reality for many young men of color in New York City.
Stop-and-frisk is the controversial policing tactic in which street cops looking for weapons stop and pat down young men. Discussions of this policy in the media most often consist of alarming stats, like what percent of men targeted are black and brown ( 87% in New York) or the breach of constitutional rights the searches entail. But the reality on the ground is far less abstract. The policy amounts to a constant disruption of the lives of hundreds of thousands of young black and brown men. It's a belittling experience that could better described as sexual assault.
I've reported on stop and frisk for two years, and in that time I've talked to young men who have experienced stop-and-frisk, and the stories they tell are harrowing. A black teenager in Bedford-Stuyvesant described how embarrassed he was to have “old ladies” watch as his pants landed around his ankles while police searched him. A 17-year-old in the Bronx explained that police, “They go in my pants. You’re not supposed to go in my pants.” Being touched by a female police officer can be especially upsetting for adolescent males. “It’s annoying because it doesn’t matter what kind of cop it is, female or male, they’re gonna frisk you. If you say something to the female about it, the female says something to you like ‘What? I can do what I want.' And they still frisk you. You can’t say sexual harassment, nothing,” 18-year-old South Bronx resident Garnell told me last year, adding, “And they go hard, grabbing stuff they’re not supposed to.”
A New York attorney told me last year he has video of a cop saying he just “credit card-swiped” a man’s ass -- without gloves, naturally. What kind of gun can fit between two butt cheeks? And why are cops touching penises, anyway? The answer is simple: They’re not looking for guns, but hoping to make arrests. While stop-and-frisk is only legally allowed for the purpose of uncovering weapons, it has been linked to far more low-level summonses and pot busts than guns. As 18-year-old Lower East resident “Twin” recently told me, “They run their hands down your ass crack because they think you’re hiding drugs there.” In the public housing on Baruch Street, he says police hang out until they see someone “suspicious” enough to grope. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/how-stop-and-frisk-too-often-sexual-assault-cops-teenagers-targeted-nyc
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A police force doing what they have to do to keep guns and drugs out of the hands of the civilian population gets my support.
Sexual assault?
Ah, OneMoreAutocrat,
Roll on the floor all you want, searches without warrants or even probable cause are unconstitutional, and invite further police abuses in the future if left unchecked.
If you don't think that some random guy's ungloved hand on your genitalia and up in your ass crack is a sexual assault, you are welcome to solicit such behavior. Given your charming personality, you might likely have to pay for it. But for any young man (or woman, or older people) peaceably going about his (/their) business on public streets it is, indeed, sexual assault.
Your notions of what level of control over the "the civilian population" (I prefer the terms '"citizens" or, more broadly, "people"
is necessary and desirable speaks volumes about your perverted notion of what might comprise a "Democrat." If you might interrupt your rofl-ing for but a moment to trouble yourself with etymology, you would find that the Greek "Demos" from which our Party derives its name puts the common people in charge. For a refresher, I recommend:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=democracy&allowed_in_frame=0
"Democracy implies that the man must take the responsibility for choosing his rulers and representatives, and for the maintenance of his own 'rights' against the possible and probable encroachments of the government which he has sanctioned to act for him in public matters." -Ezra Pound, _ABC of Economics_, 1933
Indeed.
-app
