NY Times Investigation Exposes Police Practices

NY Times Investigation Exposes Police Practices, Extreme Racial Disparity in Profiling of Brownsville Neighborhood

CCR Attorneys Available for Comment on Stops-and-Frisks, Racial Profiling

Contact: David Lerner, Riptide Communications, (212) 260-5000, dlerner@riptideonline.com

July 12, 2010, New York, NY – Attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) will be available today for comment on stops-and-frisks and other New York Police Department (NYPD) policies and practices that rights groups say have been implemented in an unconstitutional and racially discriminatory way. CCR is currently suing the NYPD in a federal civil rights class action lawsuit challenging the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices, which among other policing issues was the topic of a New York Times article this morning.

Through Floyd v. City of New York, which stems from CCR's landmark racial profiling case, Daniels v. City of New York that led to the disbanding of the infamous Street Crime Unit, CCR procured over 10 years worth of the NYPD’s own data on officer stop-and-frisk activity. The data revealed that over 80 percent of NYPD initiated stops are of Blacks and Latinos while Whites comprised only 20 percent; that nearly 90 percent of all stops uncovered no weapons, contraband or evidence of criminal activity; that Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be frisked after a NYPD-initiated stop than Whites; and that Blacks and Latinos are more likely to have physical force used against them during a NYPD-initiated stop than Whites.

CCR staff attorney Darius Charney is currently lead counsel on Floyd v. City of New York. Prior to coming to CCR, Mr. Charney litigated federal civil rights cases challenging various aspects of New York City and New York State’s child welfare and foster care systems at Lansner & Kubitschek. He is a former law clerk to the Honorable Deborah A. Batts, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.

For more case information, visit the www.ccrjustice.org/stopandfrisk or visit the Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al case page.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.