NY judge grants class action status to frisk suit

AP via SFGate ^ | 5/16/12 | LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

[SmithL]

Finding the city's attitude "deeply troubling," a judge granted class action status Wednesday to a 2008 lawsuit accusing the New York Police Department of discriminating against blacks and Hispanics with its stop-and-frisk policies aimed at reducing crime.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan said in a written ruling that there was "overwhelming evidence" that a centralized stop-and-frisk program has led to thousands of unlawful stops. She noted that the vast majority of New Yorkers who are unlawfully stopped will never file a lawsuit in response, and she said class-action status was created for just these kinds of court cases.

[SmithL]

Scheindlin, Shira A.

Born 1946 in Washington, DC

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Nominated by William J. Clinton on July 28, 1994, to a seat vacated by Louis J. Freeh. Confirmed by the Senate on September 28, 1994, and received commission on September 29, 1994. Assumed senior status on August 16, 2011.

U.S. Magistrate, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, 1982-1986

Education:
University of Michigan, B.A., 1967
Columbia University, M.A., 1969
Cornell Law School, J.D., 1975

Professional Career:
Private practice, New York City, 1975-1976
Law clerk, Hon. Charles Brieant, Jr., U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 1976-1977
Assistant U.S. attorney, Eastern District of New York, 1977-1981
General counsel, New York City Department of Investigation, 1981-1982
Adjunct professor, Brooklyn Law School, 1983-1994
Private practice, Short Hills, New Jersey, 1986-90
Private practice, New York City, 1990-1994

[RC2]

The only ones that make out in a “Class Action” are the lawyers.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

This is BS. I’m white and drive in New York city as part of my job and I am pulled over all all all the time. AND quite often frisked and searched as well.. Approx. 2-3 times a week. Right now I’m facing a total of 14 points, that’s right-FOURTEEN points from 6 tickets I got this past month alone-and they suspend your license after 10. My lawyer bills are insane.

Why are the police doing this? One word: BLOOMBERG who is pressuring the hell out of cops to give out tickets to finance his fanatical global warming/green exterior decorating projects. This effin’ POS is a fanatical despot who if you can believe it is trying to eliminate cars totally and have everyone ride bikes.

The PBA (police union) just put out an ad in the NYPost and on the radio asking the public not to blame the cops, that they are being massively pressured by “management” aka BLOOMBERG and if you can believe it when they go to court if a driver contests a ticket, a rep from INTERNAL AFFAIRS is looking over the cops shoulder the whole time and if the cop loses the case, he is docked THREE vacation days! I sh*t you not! Look it up on their website. And just imagine how many tickets a cop deals with every year.

This is what you get though when a rich liberal from Assachussets poses as a Republican and is elected into office. You get DESPOTISM. You get the police threatened to threaten the public, steal their money to finance liberal agendas, to finance BS science projects so Al Gore can make money.

[LearsFool]

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probably cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Clear enough.

[houeto]

Just damn!! THAT’S a horror story!

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Here is the radio ad and advertisement they took out in the NY Post.....

http://www.nycpba.org/miscellaneous/traffic-court.html

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

The Constituton doesn’t exist though in NYC thank to this Despot we are currently being literally oppressed by. The Constitution only exists for OWS terrorists and Muslims who want to bring grief to the 911 families. I write about this all the time on Freep. Nothing in the Constitution exists in this city. We are even told what to eat, and how to live and where. Recently the Despot demanded a list from all landlords to make a list of all the tenants who smoke in their apartments, I kid you not. Last month he tried to ban alcohol ala prohibition until the serfs threatened to riot. The month before that he confiscated food donated to the homeless (which now outnumber the homeless during the Great depression) because he didn’t deem the food properly nutritious first which means it was thrown away.

[JimC214]

The dirty little secret from the slow down by the Sanitation workers during the snows last year was to help out the Foremen. The city told the Foremen that they had to write 5 tickets a day. And the Chiefs all were pressuring them to do this. It got so bad with the harassment that the rank and file got involved and that is what happened. he city denies there are quotas, but there are.

[thefactor]

Ok, I have to know. What did you get pulled over for so much? Cell phone? Illegal turn? Seatbelt?

[Above My Pay Grade]

The general constitutionality of Stop and Frisk is questionable, as these could be considered unreasonable searches, but the racial angle, behind the class action suit is 100% bull.

Heather MacDonald wrote a great article, putting the stastics into perpective.

http://www.city-journal.org/2010/eon0514hm.html

“Here are the crime data that the Times doesn’t want its readers to know: blacks committed 66 percent of all violent crimes in the first half of 2009 (though they were only 55 percent of all stops and only 23 percent of the city’s population). Blacks committed 80 percent of all shootings in the first half of 2009. Together, blacks and Hispanics committed 98 percent of all shootings. Blacks committed nearly 70 percent of all robberies. Whites, by contrast, committed 5 percent of all violent crimes in the first half of 2009, though they are 35 percent of the city’s population (and were 10 percent of all stops). They committed 1.8 percent of all shootings and less than 5 percent of all robberies. “

I think the real issue is whether it is appropriate for the NYPD to stop and frisk about 2,000 New Yorkers, most of whom have done nothing wrong, regardless of their skin colors.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Improper turn, improper lane change which is 5 points total then 4 days later got the SAME thing for a total of 10 points. It seems in this city if you want to make a right turn you must do it from the right hand lane which is impossible because cars are parked in that right lane. Nice scam they got going on there. So I assume one must wait behind these parked cars and wait for them to move which can take all day if the person is at work. Then I got one while at a redlight for blocking a traffic lane because my brother got out of the car and somehow that constitutes blocking a traffic lane at a redlight which is 2 points then got one a week later for illegal turn which is 2 points and this goes on every month and my lawyer, Lauren Z. Asher (who is the best traffic lawyer in NYC hands down) gets about 95% if not 100% of them dismissed and the cops lose their vacation days.