ACLU: Newark stop-and-frisk targets black residents more than others
Source: New Jersery Star-Ledger
Despite comprising just more than half of Newark’s population, African Americans make up 75 percent of the stops under the city Police Department’s stop-and frisk-program, a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey has found.
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"Several disturbing patterns have emerged that raise constitutional red flags about the Newark Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices," Udi Ofer, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey and co-author of the report, said in a statement. "Specifically, our report raises concerns about the high volume of stops, racial disparities in who is getting stopped and the fact that the vast majority of stops appear to be of innocent people."
The report, which studied data from July to December 2013, found that 25 percent of those stopped in Newark were arrested or issued a summons, meaning 75 percent were deemed not to have done anything wrong.
Most of those stopped — 75 percent — were African American, who make up 52 percent of the city’s population, the report said. Of the rest, 23 percent were listed as white or Hispanic and 2 percent were listed as "other." One of the recommendations contained in the report was that police provide more details surrounding the ethnicity of those stopped.
Read more: http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/02/aclu_newark_stop-and-frisk_rate_higher_than_nyc_at_its_height.html#incart_m-rpt-1
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