General Discussion

DetlefK

(16,423 posts) Thu Dec 11, 2014, 02:04 PM Dec 2014

New police-tactic replacing Stop-and-Frisk: "Jump-out" with guns already drawn.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/12/10/3468340/jump-outs/

Quotes from article:
"Just what is a jump-out? It depends who you ask. It is typically described as multiple officers patrolling in an unmarked car, who at some point see something suspicious, and jump out of the car at once on unsuspecting pedestrians, with the intent of catching them off guard. Overwhelmingly, the jump-outs that have been reported involve at least one black male. DC Ferguson describes it as a “paramilitary tactic in which unmarked police vehicles carry 3 or more officers not wearing the standard police uniform. Their objective is to stop and intimidate ordinary citizens into submitting to interrogation or an unwarranted search.”

In some of the most egregious descriptions, cops are alleged to have drawn their weapons to do so. In others, they will allegedly manhandle, shove, or slam the suspects, frisk the suspects, or aggressively question the suspects in a manner that makes it seem as if they have no choice but to answer. "

...

"The D.C. Police Department hardly acknowledges the term at all. When asked about jump-outs by ThinkProgress, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said, “Oh god, the fantasy jump-out squads,” explaining that “jump-outs” are a now-defunct police tactic used in the 1980s and 1990s to conduct undercover drug stings. But during a police oversight hearing following the interview, Lanier qualified her comments, acknowledging that officers do occasionally jump out of unmarked cars in drug cases, although qualifying that it’s very rare, and that she wouldn’t call it a “jump-out.” "

...

"Alec Karakatsanis of Equal Justice Under Law has interviewed hundreds of residents in “heavily policed areas.” “I always ask them how many times have you been stopped and frisked by MPD,” Karakatsanis said. “Young people often don’t know how to answer that question. They often say, do you mean this week?” "

...

"Hampton says officers will often “stand them up against the wall,” likely frisking and/or searching them. This is the sort of thing MPD officers are supposed to document. But Hampton says “if they don’t find nothing, then they go back in the car and drive away and don’t document anything and they just conducted a whole bunch of illegal searches. That’s what they do.”

No public data is available on what residents describe as jump-outs. In fact, it’s not even clear that the department is documenting these incidents as “stops,” thanks in part to a 2007 court decision that found that a “look-out” involving a jump-out in D.C. was not considered a “stop.”

Lanier testified before the D.C. Council that she could only provide data on “stop-and-frisks” and not other stops, because mere “stops” may have not involved criminal activity and thus are not public record."