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WillyT

(72,631 posts)
Thu Aug 22, 2013, 09:32 PM Aug 2013

Here Is The Article That Triggered The Stop & Frisk/NSA Discussion On Chris Hayes Tonight...

Where is the white liberal outrage on stop-and-frisk?
Opinion - by James Braxton Peterson | TheGrio
August 21, 2013 at 5:05 PM

<snip>

Growing up as a teenager in Newark, N.J., the summers were often correlated with the dread of enhanced police presence in the city brought on by the infiltration of New Jersey State Troopers. This practice of state police support in Newark continues to this day. Much like the entire nation, the citizens of Newark accept the appearance of enhanced security without much discussion about privacy and/or civil liberties especially significant given the state’s long history of racial profiling and the plethora of police stops casually justified as “driving while black.”

What we refer to now as “stop and frisk” has been tactical practice for urban police departments for nearly all of my life. That it has been formalized and institutionalized in the 21st century only serves to strengthen law enforcement’s reliance on it and faulty justifications for it.

Maybe if you’ve never been profiled; if you’ve never been stopped for no apparent reason, questioned about your destination, tousled and frisked, searched and put up against a wall or a car; maybe if you’re not painfully aware of how many of these kinds of encounters (between police and innocent citizens) have ended in the deaths of too many innocent victims to tally here; maybe if you have no connection to the utter humiliation of being publicly detained by police for no reason, then it might be difficult to comprehend the underpinnings of privilege in the recent discourses on the NSA, Manning, Snowden, and the unchecked access to our digital lives.

The left’s outrage directed at the Obama administration in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaking of classified information has been palpable and well documented in both print and television media. While the discussion has sometimes centered too much on Snowden and not enough on the principles of civil liberties in relationship to national security, I find myself in agreement with those who are suspicious of any government that wants us to simply trust that they will do the right thing regarding our rights.

Yet how can we have a discussion about civil liberties and security, privacy and safety without connecting it to the physical surveillance to which black and brown Americans have been historically subject? In short, why aren’t the champions of Snowden, Manning, and others saying anything at all about stop-and-frisk and Stand Your Ground laws/policies. They have been and remain silent on the historical and perpetual encroachment upon the civil liberties – the freedom to walk the streets without being detained or shot – of black and brown citizens of the United States.

<snip>

More: http://thegrio.com/2013/08/21/where-is-the-white-liberal-outrage-on-stop-and-frisk/


5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Here Is The Article That Triggered The Stop & Frisk/NSA Discussion On Chris Hayes Tonight... (Original Post) WillyT Aug 2013 OP
As a mostly white, liberal NYer, I've been outraged at stop and frisk for a long time. JaneyVee Aug 2013 #1
Must Read malaise Aug 2013 #2
First they came for the African-Americans... FiveGoodMen Aug 2013 #3
stop and frisk is unconstitutional questionseverything Aug 2013 #4
The NYC Council said something about it. Wilms Aug 2013 #5
 

JaneyVee

(19,877 posts)
1. As a mostly white, liberal NYer, I've been outraged at stop and frisk for a long time.
Thu Aug 22, 2013, 09:34 PM
Aug 2013

I think many liberals who don't live in stop and frisk areas don't grasp the horrible reality of it.

FiveGoodMen

(20,018 posts)
3. First they came for the African-Americans...
Thu Aug 22, 2013, 09:37 PM
Aug 2013

We learned nothing from history.

(AND we don't seem to have much natural compassion or empathy)

questionseverything

(9,631 posts)
4. stop and frisk is unconstitutional
Thu Aug 22, 2013, 10:11 PM
Aug 2013

and not just because the cops mostly target black and brown people..it is unconstitutional because there is no probable cause involved in the stop

i will bet there is one thing in common with all the "suspects" of stop and frisk....they are part of the 99%, never the 1%

 

Wilms

(26,795 posts)
5. The NYC Council said something about it.
Fri Aug 23, 2013, 12:05 AM
Aug 2013

Quite loudly, too.

The New York City Council has voted to affirm legislation previously vetoed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg that seeks to ban discriminatory profiling within the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program and establishes oversight over the department.


http://rt.com/usa/nyc-stop-frisk-profiling-override-870/

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