NYC Mayor Bloomberg Loses Stop-and-Frisk Battle to City Council...

[Indi Guy]

Source: Washington Times

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was forced to admit defeat Thursday after a two-hour heated debate among City Council members led to a vote to override the his veto of two stop-and-frisk curbs.

Now the two measures scaling back police powers to halt and question suspicious characters on city streets will become law within 90 days, the New York Postreported.

One of the measures includes the appointment of an inspector general who will be tasked with overseeing the New York Police Department and ensuring officers don’t infringe upon minorities’ rights while walking their beats and conducting investigations. The other enables those who feel violated by police stop-and-frisk policies to proceed with racial profiling lawsuits.

Mr. Bloomberg had fought the curbs on police authorities for weeks, vowing to veto the two bills when they came to his desk for signature. But council members pushed forward with the measures, determined to halt the practice of allowing officers to question those they deem suspicious and even pat them down if those suspicions are heightened during questioning...

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/23/nyc-mayor-bloomberg-loses-stop-and-frisk-battle-ci/

[NYC_SKP]

1. That man is certifiable and needs to be put out to pasture. nt

[Indi Guy]

4. Hes already been put out to pasture once. n/t

[derby378]

2. Waddaya know...

The good guys in NYC actually prevailed for once.

[DeSwiss]

3. K&R

- Well, there goes 75% of NYC crime fighting ability out the window. Now they'll be forced to hire a few cops with IQs over 50......

[Swede Atlanta]

9. Wrong......

Your post implies that most law enforcement officers have low IQs or, in other words, are stupid. That is not only a categorically unsupportable assertion but not helpful.

I do not disagree with the premise of your post that there are law enforcement officers that may not be "the best and the brightest" but the same can be said of most professions. I also do not disagree that there are members of the NYPD that behave with arrogance and an apparent disregard for their purpose to protect the public.

That said, most of not only the NYPD but police forces around the country are reasonably intelligent individuals hired to do a job. In NYC, unfortunately, they have been told to engage in stop-and-frisk activities. I have seen no reporting on this but it would not surprise me if there weren't quotas for number of stops.

It isn't helpful to the discussion of stop and frisk to paint the NYPD with a broad unsupportable brushstroke. On two occasions in my life I have had to call my local police and in both cases the officers were efficient, effective, well-spoken and genuinely interested in addressing my concerns.

[DeSwiss]

10. And you have a nice life!

/I-binned

[Indi Guy]

13. Too bad you're not as generous to your neighbors...

...given your sig-line, "Don't worry about what your neighbors think of you because they seldom do (think that is)!"

[drynberg]

5. HEY, THIS IS GOOD NEWS

We gotta rejoice when the outcomes are good, no? I know there are many many issues, but this one is a victory for Justice.

[rpannier]

6. I was stunned at the number of people at HuffPo who are so upset

Had a short back-and-forth with someone who went on about the dead children, the dead police, the new crime wave that will all result from this override.
I find it disturbing how many people are so upset that an Inspector General has been appointed. And how it is now possible for people to sue for having their rights violated.
My response to another person was, "Tell them to wear the little cameras like the federal judge said and they won't have to worry about the lawsuit."

on note: This all began when I commented how Mayor Bloomberg said that law abiding people had nothing to fear from stop and frisk. So, by that logic, police not abusing their authority have nothing to fear from the city council's override.

[markpkessinger]

12. Here is the text of one of my HuffPo comments on this issue

Ray Kelly can say whatever he wants, but the NYPD's own data, which was extensively analyzed by the NYCLU in 2012, doesn't support their statements. in 2002, Mayor Bloomberg's first year in office, there were 97,296 stops under the stop-and-frisk policy. There were 582 homicides. In 2012, there were 685,724 stops, and 532 homicides. Even if one accepts that the drop is due in part to stop-and-frisk -- a pretty unsupportable position since homicide rates were down by a similar percentage across the country over the same period, even in cities that did not make aggressive use of stop-and-frisk -- that would mean that a 705% increase in stops led to only a 9.4% drop in homicides.

But the question of efficacy in preventing crime is really beside the point. Under the U.S. Constitution, not even the worthy cause of crime prevention gives the state license to trample wholesale over the civil rights of entire communities. There are certain things that a country operating under the rule of law simply does not do, even if they might, on some level, be considered to be effective. Whatever efforts are taken to prevent crime must fall within the parameters of the Constitution, and must operate in a manner that respects the Constitutionally guaranteed civil rights of citizens -- which includes both the right to be free from unreasonable searches, as well as the EQUAL protection of the laws.

(Commenting on: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/markpkessinger/ray-kelly-stop-and-frisk_n_3776035_277918586.html

[BumRushDaShow]

7. K&R

A shame about the source link though. Another link below -

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-city-council-overrides-mayor-bloomberg-vetoes-passes-bills-rein-aggressive-policing-article-1.1434160

[Dawson Leery]

8. The little tyrant knows his time is up.

He will be gone on New Year's day.

[PaulKersey]

11. Not a fan of stop and frisk but

not sure about the bill that bans identifying the race of suspects. Seems a bit strange.

[wild bird]

14. So, the city council members finally had the gumption to stand up to the little tyrant.

This is a good thing.

Stop and Frisk is nothing more than a racist policy to get around the 4th amendment.

[no_hypocrisy]

15. Mayor Lame Duck

With his THIRD (quasi-illicit) term almost up, Bloomberg has lost his Mojo with his muscling the City Council to vote his way -- or else.

[dusty trails]

16. Stop and frisk ?

Maybe that's what San Diego's Mayor Filner's been doing ?