Federal Judge rules against Stop and Frisk in NYC
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
It's great to have some good news to report. Though the ruling on Monday by Federal Justice Shira Scheindlin doesn't end the racist and discriminatory policy in New York City, this is being declared a victory for people fighting back against a racist system.
Here's the statement from the ACLU, and a link to the Center for Constitutional Rights who have been waging the legal battle.
NEW YORK – Today in Floyd v. City of New York, a federal judge ruled that the New York City Police Department's stop-and-frisk practices are unconstitutional.
Ezekiel Edwards, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Criminal Law Reform Project, said, "The ACLU celebrates today's decision by Federal Justice Shira Scheindlin declaring the NYPD's longstanding and widespread stop and frisk practices unconstitutional.
"As the decision exhaustively documents, the NYPD's stop and frisk policy clearly violated the 4th and 14th Amendments, subjecting millions of innocent New Yorkers – overwhelmingly Black and Latino – to unlawful searches through systemic racial profiling. We hope that today's decision, and the robust remedies the court has put in place, will mark the end to this dark chapter in the NYPD's history."
Judge Scheindlin ruled that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) application of stop and frisk in NYC is unconstitutional, and constituted "indirect racial profiling".
Her ruling was 195 pages in length. The NY Times coverage has extensive quotes from her decision.
The judge found that the New York police were too quick to deem suspicious behavior that was perfectly innocent, in effect watering down the legal standard required for a stop. “Blacks are likely targeted for stops based on a lesser degree of objectively founded suspicion than whites,” she wrote. She noted that officers routinely stopped people partly on the basis of “furtive movements,” a category that officers have testified might encompass any of the following: being fidgety, changing directions, walking in a certain way, grabbing at a pocket or looking over one’s shoulder. “If officers believe that the behavior described above constitutes furtive movement that justifies a stop, then it is no surprise that stops so rarely produce evidence of criminal activity,” Judge Scheindlin wrote.
She found that in their zeal to identify concealed weapons, officers sometimes stopped people on the grounds that the officer observed a bulge in the person’s pocket; often it turned out that the bulge was caused not by a gun but by a wallet. “The outline of a commonly carried object such as a wallet or cellphone does not justify a stop or frisk, nor does feeling such an object during a frisk justify a search,” she ruled.
She emphasized what she called the “human toll of unconstitutional stops,” noting that some of the plaintiffs testified that their encounters with the police left them feeling that they did not belong in certain areas of the city. She characterized each stop as “a demeaning and humiliating experience.” “No one should live in fear of being stopped whenever he leaves his home to go about the activities of daily life,” she wrote.
This was breaking news in New York City, and has implications for other cities in the U.S. that have similar policies in place.
Grassroots groups in NYC have been conducting protests and marches against racial profiling by the NYPD for years.
Loud squawking about the ruling came immediately from NYC Mayor Bloomberg:
Mr. Bloomberg pledged that lawyers for the city, in appealing to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, would argue that the judge was biased against the police. As evidence, he cited the fact that the judge, who has overseen numerous stop-and-frisk cases over the last decade, had encouraged the plaintiffs to steer the Floyd case into her courtroom by marking it as related to an earlier case she had overseen.
The mayor said the judge did “not understand how policing works” and had misinterpreted what the Constitution allowed.
This also has direct connections to the current NYC mayoral race. Candidates are already
weighing in on the ruling.
International news agencies have also been following this case closely. Here's a report from AlJazeera:
I just want to give a shout out to everyone who has marched, petitioned, protested and organized to stop "stop and frisk" and remind folks that though we've won a battle, we haven't yet won the war.
The struggle continues, and we'll keep fighting back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
High fashion's race problem. New York Times: Fashion’s Blind Spot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Five years ago, the fashion industry faced a reckoning over the startling lack of diversity among the models on major designer runways. Reacting to complaints that many shows and magazines included nothing but white models, Vogue, in its July 2008 issue, featured a substantial article that asked, in its headline, “Is Fashion Racist?”
This came shortly after Franca Sozzani, the editor of Italian Vogue, published a provocative issue using only black models and feature subjects; Bethann Hardison, a former model and agent, initiated a series of panel discussions on the subject; and Diane von Furstenberg, the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, urged members to be more aware of diversity in casting.
And since then, almost nothing has changed.
The New York shows are as dominated by white models as they have been since the late 1990s, roughly at the end of the era of supermodels. Jezebel, a blog that has been tracking the appearance of minorities in fashion shows since the debate erupted, noted that the numbers are hardly encouraging. After a notable increase in 2009 that followed extensive news media coverage, the representation of black models has remained fairly steady until this year, when they accounted for only 6 percent of the looks shown at the last Fashion Week in February (down from 8.1 percent the previous season); 82.7 percent were worn by white models.
In Europe, where Phoebe Philo of Céline, Raf Simons of Dior and many others have presented entire collections using no black models at all, the opportunities have been even less favorable for minorities.
Photo illustration by the New York Times; Photography by Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times; Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
The New York shows are as dominated by white models as they have been since the late 1990s, roughly at the end of the era of supermodels.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has a plan to help integrate communities across the nation as housing policies have been ineffective at creating "the kind of communities the agency had hoped for" US News and World Report: HUD Proposes Plan to Racially, Economically Integrate Neighborhoods.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed a new plan to change U.S. neighborhoods it says are racially imbalanced or are too tilted toward rich or poor, arguing the country's housing policies have not been effective at creating the kind of integrated communities the agency had hoped for.
The proposed federal rule, called "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing," is currently under a 60-day public comment period. Though details of how the policy would specifically work are unclear, the rule says HUD would provide states, local governments and others who receive agency money with data and a geospatial tool to look at "patterns of integration and segregation; racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty; access to education, employment, low-poverty, transportation, and environmental health."
States would then assess the best way to integrate communities deemed by HUD's data to not be integrated enough. A HUD official, who did not want to speak on record because of the public comment period, said the rule hopes to better match up HUD-assisted housing with the communities that have good hospitals, schools and other assets.
The move has been welcomed by civil rights groups including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, whose senior director of the economic department Dedrick Muhammad says the policy could result in more access to economic resources for minorities.
"It's not just having people of different colors live together just to do so," he says. "African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to live in segregated communities, that are predominantly lower income, have less strong public resources, less schools and educational opportunities, employment opportunities. This kind of integration strengthens economic equality."
Shaun Donovan, secretary of U.S. Housing and Urban Development, testifies at a recent hearing. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is it too early to start celebrating? Slate: The Worst of Stop-and-Frisk Is Over. But Why Didn't the NYPD End the Racist Policy Itself?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is much that is extraordinary about Judge Shira A. Scheindlin’s decision in Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al. The 198-page ruling, issued Monday morning, effectively dismantles the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy as it currently stands. Scheindlin rips apart the “NYPD’s practice of making stops that lack individualized reasonable suspicion,” appoints an independent monitor to help the department reform the policy and bring it in line with the law, and generally validates the notion that stop-and-frisk has been a colossal infringement on citizens’ civil rights. But even considering the sweeping language in her decision, the most extraordinary thing about Scheindlin’s ruling is the fact that it exists at all—that the NYPD didn’t see fit to reform itself in the face of such obvious abuses.
It has long been obvious that the NYPD has deliberately targeted young black and Hispanic men for stops and frisks, regardless of whether there was any reason to believe they were engaged in criminal behavior. Floyd v. City of New York, which was argued in a two-month trial this spring, did nothing to dispel that notion. In her ruling, Scheindlin finds that the department “has repeatedly turned a blind eye to clear evidence of unconstitutional stops and frisks,” and has let racial bias guide its actions. Given the amount of evidence in the case, it was the only possible conclusion.
But a long trial and a federal monitor certainly wasn’t the only possible resolution. As Scheindlin notes more than once in her ruling, the NYPD has had ample opportunity to changes its ways over the past decade and a half. In 1999, a New York Attorney General’s report “placed the City on notice that stops and frisks were being conducted in a racially skewed manner,” and recommended a “broad, public dialogue” about the policy. In 2003, the city settled the case of Daniels, et al. v. City of New York, which alleged that the NYPD was improperly stopping and frisking members of certain races; as part of the settlement, the department was charged with developing a written, binding anti-racial profiling policy, and with providing audit data about stops and frisks to the Center for Constitutional Rights. In 2010, after the Village Voice reported on secret audio tapes made by Officer Adrian Schoolcraft that showed commanding officers exhorting their subordinates to make quotas, the state passed a law prohibiting police departments from retaliating against officers who fail to meet those quotas. Throughout this time period, and especially over the past couple of years, the local and national media have increasingly criticized stop-and-frisk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hot on the heels of leading a well-received workshop at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, Bernard Kinsey talks on art, history and philanthropy. The Grio: The Kinsey Collection: Couples’ priceless black art tours the country.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mr. Kinsey’s intrepid globetrotting mirrors his passion to showcase African-American achievement and contribution. The sprightly 69-year-old, along with his wife Shirley, have amassed one of the largest private collections of artifacts tracing black history spanning more than 400 years.
“The Kinsey Collection strives to give our ancestors a voice, personality and name, enabling the viewer to understand the remarkable accomplishments and triumphs of African-Americans,” Kinsey told theGrio hours before his Charlotte bound flight.
In fact, what started as a husband and wife hobby to collect mementos on their travels has over the course of 30 years turned into a labor of love. The outcome is a staggering national touring exhibit of rare art, manuscripts, paintings, prints, sculpture, and photographs.
Some of the most notable items include letters by Zora Neale Hurston and Martin Luther King, Jr., correspondence between Malcolm X and his biographer Alex Haley, slave shackles, a first-edition copy of poems by Phillis Wheatley, and 17th century slave documents.
Is also consists of works by renowned African-American artists such as Romare Bearden, Henry O. Tanner, Richmond Barthé, Lois Mailou Jones, Richard Mayhew, Artis Lane, and Jacob Lawrence.
Los-Angeles based couple Bernard and Shirley Kinsey who have amassed one of largest private collections of artifacts tracing African-American history spanning some 400 years dating from the early 1600s (courtesy of Khalil Kinsey)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The night four legends met in a single room in 1964. LA Times: Review: Imagining the history that was made 'One Night in Miami...'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Inspired by the real-life meeting of Clay, singer Sam Cooke, football star Jim Brown and civil-rights leader Malcolm X on Feb. 25, 1964, playwright Kemp Powers weaves the specifics of their personalities into an engrossing scenario.
A central debate about African American assimilation versus revolution arises between Cooke (Ty Jones) and Malcolm X (Jason Delane), the latter of whom decries the former’s selling out to white audiences instead of giving his voice to the movement. Cooke, however, has an alternate, equally convincing take on subverting the system.
Their face-offs accelerate against the sunny self-involvement of Clay (Matt Jones), who allows Malcolm X to attribute his victory to divine intervention, hence his impending conversion to Islam.
Ty Jones, left, Matt Jones and Kevin Daniels in "One Night in Miami..."… (John Flynn- Miami Herald)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simon Berry hopes ColaLife can help stop unnecessary deaths from dehydration. Slate: Making Medicine as Ubiquitous as Coca-Cola in Rural Africa.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How did you get the idea for ColaLife?
I was working in a remote part of Zambia and I could always get a Coca-Cola but, at the same time, 1 in 5 children didn't make it to their fifth birthday because there weren't medicines for them. After respiratory disease, the second biggest killer was dehydration—from diarrhea—which can be stopped with oral rehydration salts (ORS) and zinc. Both are very stable at normal temperatures, as is Coca-Cola, so in principle they can go through the same supply chain.
Mother showing the Kit Yamoyo she used to treat her daughter.
Photo courtesy of Simon Berry
How did you go from that realization to a fully-fledged business plan?
I put the bare bones of my idea on Facebook. Soon thousands of people were egging us on, so in 2011 my wife and I gave up our day jobs to dedicate a year to get it going. Then, last year, we began a trial with 2,500 households.
What was the first thing you did?
We designed the Kit Yamoyo, or "kit of life." It is a plastic container designed to fit between bottles in drinks crates. Each kit has ORS sachets and zinc tablets. The container is also a water measurer to make the ORS solution, and a cup from which a child can drink the rehydration solution.
How did you come up with the kit design?
We went out and asked people what their problems were in treating diarrhea. I don't think anyone had ever done that before; the kits are designed not for poor people, but with them. Some NGOs sit in their ivory towers thinking they are doing good, but how many of them give people the dignity of attention and choice?
A Kit Yamoyo retailer in Katete, Zambia, who sells the anti-diarrheal kit to mothers. "Lot's of satisfied customers," he noted.
Photo courtesy of Rohit Ramchandani
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
The anti-apartheid, white South African poet, writer and painter, Breyten Breytenbach, was exiled after marrying a French national of Vietnamese descent while studying in Paris in the early '60's. The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 and The Immorality Act of 1950 made it a criminal offense for a white person to have sexual relations with a person of a different race. He made a trip to South Africa in 1975, was discovered in the country, (it has been reported that the ANC betrayed him to the government because they didn't trust him), arrested and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment for High Treason. Massive international intervention ultimately secured his release in 1982, he returned to Paris and obtained French citizenship.
Nigerian poet, novelist and musician, Chris Abani has a prescience that is almost uncanny. His first novel, Masters of the Board, about a neo-Nazi takeover of Nigeria earned him praise as "... (A)frica's answer to Frederick Forsyth." The government, though, believed the book to be a blueprint for an actual coup and sent the 18 year old Abani to prison in 1985. After serving six months, he was released; but he went on to perform in a guerilla theatre group which led to his arrest and imprisonment at the notorious Kiri Kiri prison. He was released again, but after writing his play Song of a Broken Flute, was arrested a third time, sentenced to death and sent to the Kalakuta Prison; where he was jailed with other political prisoners on death row.
Languishing most of the time in solitary confinement, Abani was finally and fortunately released in 1991. He lived in exile in London until 1999, when he emigrated to the United States; where he currently teaches at UC Riverside in California.
Hanging in Egypt with Breyten Breytenbach
There are stones even here
worn into a malevolence by time
gritting the teeth and tearing
the eyes with the memory.
Out in the desert, the wind
is a sculptor working the ephemera
of sand. Desperately editing steles
to write the names of thousands of slaves
who died to make Pharaoh great.
It is a fool’s game.
And we are like the blind musician
at the hotel who tells us with a smile:
I’ll see you later.
The guard at the pyramid eyes me.
Are you Egyptian? he demands,
then searches my bag for a bomb.
At the hotel they speak Arabic to me,
don’t treat me like the white guests,
and I guess, even here, with all
the hindsight of history we haven’t
learned to love ourselves.
I cannot crawl into the tombs, and cannot
explain why. How do you say: In my country
they buried me alive for six months?
And so you lie and tell yourself this is love.
I am protecting the world from my rage.
Rabab tells me: We know how to build graves
here. I nod. I know. It is the same all over Africa.
Do you have a knife? Do you have one?
the guards at the museum ask Breyten and me,
searching us. We call this on ourselves. We
are clearly political criminals.
I trace the glyphs chipped into stone.
As a writer I am drawn to this. If I could
I too would carve myself into eternity.
Breyten watching me says: Don’t tell me
you’ve found a spelling mistake in it!
A line of miniature statues is placed
into the tomb to serve the pharaoh.
One for each day of the year. Four hundred.
The overseers are a plus. I think
even death will not ease
the lot of the poor here.
Statues: it seems the more I search the world
for differences the more I find it all the same.
Perhaps the Buddha was a jaded traveler too
when he said we are all one.
Mona argues about who should pay
to see the mummies. It isn’t often I can
treat a girl to a dead body, Breyten insists.
A woman nearby tells her husand she can see
dead bodies at work. Why pay?
Do you think she works in a hospital? I ask.
That or the U.S. State Department, Breyten agrees.
From the top of Bab Zwelia, flat rooftops
spread out like a conference of coffee tables.
Broken walls, furniture, pots, litter the roofs
like family secrets sunning themselves.
Two white goats on a roof chew
their way through the debris.
On the Nile, Rabab sings in Arabic, tells me
she wants to be Celine Dion.
She is my sister calling me home to Egypt.
Perhaps one day I will be ready.
For now it is enough to know I can
be at home here.
-- Chris Abani
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to the Black Kos Community Front Porch