By Chris Francescani | Reuters – 8 hrs ago
Silent march to protest NYPD's "stop and frisk" policy
(Reuters) - Thousands of New Yorkers planned to march in silence down Fifth Avenue on Sunday to demand an end to the New York Police Department's "stop-and-frisk" program, which the protesters say disproportionately targets black and Latino males.
The march, which will end at New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Manhattan townhouse, is reminiscent of a 1917 silent civil rights march along the same path, said NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous, who will march on Father's Day with the Rev. Al Sharpton, civil libertarians and some potential Democratic mayoral candidates.
Bloomberg and NYPD officials have vigorously defended the stop-and-frisk tactic, arguing it has been crucial in taking guns off the streets and achieving a historic drop in crime rates. The police deny that race or quotas motivate stops and say they are stopping people considered suspicious.
Jealous said the program constitutes racial profiling and has created "a police state for one community's children."
Last year, the department performed 168,126 on-the-spot searches of black men aged 14 to 24 out of a total population of 158,406 for that demographic, according to a New York Civil Liberties Union analysis of departmental statistics.
"This program needs to be scrapped and the needs to start from square one," Jealous told Reuters.
Bloomberg acknowledged the criticism last week but said the program should be "mended, not ended."
The mayor said new training videos and precinct-level audits of stop and frisk data by commanding officers - who will be held accountable to senior police officials - will address critics' concerns.
He insisted the program is vital, particularly in high crime areas, where police make stops "not because of race because of crime."
"We are not going to walk away from a strategy that we know saves lives," he said last weekend.
Civil rights leaders said New York City has not seen a large-scale silent protest since the Vietnam War-era.
"That silence will resonate louder than anything we could say or chant," said Sharpton, who with other civil rights leaders met recently with Bloomberg to discuss the program.
"We've agreed to keep talking," Sharpton said. "But he said he's not backing down off 'mend it, don't end it,' and we say 'end it, it can't be mended.'" (Reporting by Chris Francescani; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Bill Trott)
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Today is
Why Don't Whites Acknowledge Racism?
Mayor Bloomberg, the whitest Mayor in U.S. History, refuses to acknowledge the NY law of "Stop & Frisk" as being racial profiling, which is a act of "Civil Rights Violation".
Static's show that there are 158,406 black men between the ages of 14 & 24, and last year "Stop & Frisk" stats show that 168,126 stop & frisks were performed on black men between the age of 14 & 24, which means that 10 thousand more search's of black men between the ages of 14 & 24 were performed than there are in NY.
What's the same search ratio for white men between the ages of 14 & 24? Definitely not at that level.
That Is Called Racial Profiling Mayor Bloomberg and its wrong and black men are sick of it.
In 30 Years, when whites are the minority, and non-whites are the majority in all areas of government, and it's the whites who are suffering from racism, racial profiling, and racial abuse..., and the young whites complain to their parents..., just tell your children or grand children that white men did it to Blacks, Asians, Latinos, Hispanics, and any non-100%-white person in the U.S. for hundreds of years, and pay back is fair play.
The Changing Dynamics are changing much faster that we had anticipated and with Obama stopping the deportation of Hispanics younger than 30, the changing demographics will continue, perhaps even faster.
White Men have enjoyed the pleasures of being the ones that initiate the racial and racist acts for centuries, but, at what costs will the past racist and current racial profiling cost your children and grand children?
I would guess that, out of the 100% of whites in the U.S., 20% are hardcore racist, 20% are those that are not hardcore racist but love their position of being the dominant race in the U.S., 30% are fair minded non-racist people who just want peace in the U.S., and the other 30% are hardcore non-racist and view the racist whites in the U.S. as a huge problem for us all.
The Reality of a possible future where minorities that will inevitably become the majority won't care which whites are the ones that were the ones that weren't the racists whites in the past, primarily because of the length of time that racism took place...
The Fact that factors in the most is that fact that 60% of whites who are non-racist, turn their heads when the racist whites does racist stuff. It's the aggression in the racist, and the lack of action by the non-racist that allows continued abuses to take place.
Keeping your mouth shut while your Grandfather, Father, Brother, Uncle, Cousin, close friend, friends on your street, work mates, colleagues or any other white person..., commits an act of racism, will eventually catch up with either you, your child, your grand child or your great grand child.
Today, we have the correct ratio of Blacks & Hispanics (100 Million plus) in America, combined with the 60% non-racist whites, that could take an aggressive stand against all who would act in a racist way, equal to a war on anyone who chooses to be a racist.
The Combined numbers of Hispanics, Blacks, and non-racist whites, can ensure that we elect officials who would act with the heart of the beginning of the new America, which will be an America that start healing from America's racist past, and start working as one collective voice for this country and the future lives of all of our children, who we will protect from racism, and teach how to not be racist.
We are in the right times to take a step towards acknowledging America's Racist Past, asking each other for forgiveness, and working as one to ensure that we create a fair current political conditions that will ensure that we work towards a future that ensures that our past mistakes are not repeated and we work towards teaching our children how not to be racist, thereby nullifying any degree of retaliations in the future.
The American Party is the name of the future political party, one which opens it's does for all Americans.
In My Opinion
ASMFMB
5/1/2012
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