Dozens of New York lawmakers and several advocacy groups are convening on Capitol Hill today to call on the Justice Department to investigate the New York City Police Department’s controversial “stop-and-frisk” policies. Last year the NYPD stopped, frisked and interrogated people nearly 700,000 times — mostly black and Latino men. In all, there were more stops of young African-American men than the total of population of that group in the city. “This is not about criminals — this is about a generation that has been criminalized, targeted and brutalized by the police,” says organizer Jamel Mims, a victim of stop-and-frisk. We’re also joined by NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, who is helping to organize a silent march against racial profiling in New York City on Father’s Day, June 17. “This is the biggest, most aggressive racial profiling problem that we have in this country, and it just has to be stopped,” Jealous says.
Guests:
Jamel Mims, member of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, which is working to end the practice of stop-and-frisk by the New York City Police Department. He was arrested last October for engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience by blocking the entrance to a NYPD precinct building, and again arrested in November in Queens for non-violently blocking the entrance to another police precinct office.
Ben Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP, which is helping to organize a silent march against racial profiling in New York City on Father’s Day, June 17.
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