Racial-Profiling Case Against New York Police Is Allowed to Proceed - NYTimes.com: A federal judge on Wednesday rejected an effort to dismiss a case claiming that New York City police officers use race as a factor in stopping people on the streets, sometimes to frisk them, saying there is enough evidence for a jury to decide.
Lawyers for the city had argued that no trial was necessary and moved to dismiss a lawsuit against the city and its police force. In the suit, the Center for Constitutional Rights alleges a widespread pattern of stops based not on reasonable suspicion of individuals but on racial profiling in the Police Department’s “stop, question and frisk” policy.
As a practical matter, the stops display a measurable racial disparity: black and Hispanic people generally represent more than 85 percent of those stopped by the police, though their combined populations make up a small share of the city’s racial composition.
The judge, Shira A. Scheindlin of Federal District Court, ruled that the evidence submitted so far raised enough questions to allow a trial to go forward to determine whether the department’s practices amounted to a pattern of race-based stops. She said the racial claims appeared “difficult to discern.”
