There was a new ruling handed down yesterday from the Southern District of New York (read: Manhattan) Federal Court Judge Shira Scheindlin regarding the Stop and Frisk policy that the NYPD has employed for some time now.
She feels that the NYPD has crossed the line when making trespass stops outside buildings, in neighborhoods such as the South Bronx or East New York Brooklyn.
I am simply amazed.
“For those of us who do not fear being stopped as we approach or leave
our own homes or those of our friends and family, it is difficult to
believe that residents of one of our boroughs live under such a threat,”
she wrote.
Perhaps, Judge Scheindlin, it is difficult to believe...because you live in another neighborhood? In your building, do you have a doorman, or do you routinely have gang members hanging out in the hallways, trying to keep warm while waiting for a runner or a customer? Is it okay---because, let's face it, it doesn't happen where you live---that people who live in these neighborhoods are constantly accosted by loitering thugs? What about the landlords that say they want this practice to continue, because their residents feel safer, knowing that the police have their back?
It is a true shame to see the outright glee manifested in the Tweets of various individuals after the ruling yesterday. I would hazard a guess that the majority of the people commenting on the ruling do not live in some of the City's most notorious neighborhoods.
They just don't get it.
And they won't...until another innocent 5-year-old gets shot, and then there will be public outcry. "Where were the police?"
They were there, but they were no longer allowed to stop, frisk, and/or detain the thug who was hanging out in the vestibule of the building closest to where things were just about to pop off.
This Justice may or may not understand this, but she is taking away one of the very important tools that the NYPD employs in order to keep the residents of these crime-ridden neighborhoods safe. The sad truth is, that she still may not understand it, even after another innocent life is lost. The real losers in yesterday's ruling are the hard-working people that live in the South Bronx, that need the police to help them eradicate the problem that infests their neighborhoods.
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