ACLU sues Milwaukee police over profiling, stop-and-frisk
The Milwaukee Police Department performs thousands of illegal stop-and-frisks targeting African-Americans and Latinos every year, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the ACLU of Wisconsin.
The suit, filed against the city, the Fire and Police Commission and Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn, claims police routinely pull people over and stop them on the street without cause, demanding identification and searching them or their vehicles. Such stops are a violation of the fourth amendment, which requires police to have “reasonable suspicion" that the person is dangerous or has committed a crime, the suit says.
The suit also accuses officers of conducting stop-and-frisks “motivated by race and ethnicity” in violation of the 14th amendment.
Named plaintiffs in the class-action suit include a mother who says police stopped her son just blocks from his school when he was 11 and a 60-year-old school secretary who says police followed her and her 4-year-old granddaughter into her house without her permission, claiming they had evidence of heroin use.
Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2017/02/22/aclu-sues-milwaukee-police-over-profiling-stop-and-frisk/98155822/