Too many young black and Hispanic males are being stopped on the street and searched without reason, leading to mistrust between the community and police, says Sen. Eric Adams, who sat down with The Brooklyn Ink to discuss what he believes can be done about the practice of “stop-and-frisk."
Stop-and-frisk is the legal practice wherein cops may question someone on the street who is engaging in suspicious activities, or is believed to be in posession of a weapon. According to the article, things become murky when police officers must meet questioning quotas.
“The outcry that we’re having is that the police conducted over 700,000 stop-question-and-frisks last year. Over 95 percent of the people they stopped were found to have done nothing wrong at all,” Sen. Adams, who represents Prospect Heights, Park Slope and Windsor Terrace, told the paper.
According to the article, Sen. Adams believes that good policing is when an officer is known in the community, and makes residents feel comfortable to approach with their suspicions or troubles.
But, at the same time, he says that members of the community have “got to take personal responsibility.”
“If your son’s coming home driving a Benz with no job, you know he’s doing something wrong,” Sen. Adams told the Ink. “There should come a day when no cops have to patrol our block because our block is so safe.”
