A Black Man Being Frisked for Absolutely No Reason? Welcome to Philadelphia

You’re walking down the street when a cop orders you to stop for no apparent reason. Before you know it, the officer is patting you down and searching you... This sort of thing doesn’t happen in the so-called 'free world', right?

Guess again. Thousands of Philadelphians have been subjected to a practice known in legal circles as “stop and frisk.” But not just anyone in the city is at risk for a random pat-down. A lawsuit filed in federal court by a group of civil rights attorneys last week accuses police of routinely stopping, and frisking, Philadelphians of color.

The suit was filed on behalf of eight black and Latino men, including a lawyer, an Ivy League graduate and a state representative who formerly served as a Temple University police officer. Philly Mayor Michael A. Nutter touts the stop-and-frisk policy as a crime deterrent and claims race doesn’t factor into who the police stop, but the police department's own stats suggest otherwise.

In 2009, for example, 72 percent of all pedestrians stopped by police were African American. Moreover, the stop-and-frisk policy hasn’t proven to be much of a crime-fighter. Police had reason to arrest just 8 percent of people singled out for a stop-and-frisk.

“Most of those arrests had nothing to do with the reason they were stopped,” attorney Paul Messing told the Philadelphia Daily News. “The charges were often for disorderly conduct because they complained they were stopped for no reason.”

Despite the ineffectiveness of stop-and-frisk as a crime-fighter, the number of Philly police officers using the practice rose by a dramatic 148 percent, from 102,319 in 2005 to 253,333 in 2009. That means more and more Philadelphians of color have been subjected to the humiliation of unwarranted pat-downs.

Who’s responsible for the rise in stop-and-frisks? According to the lawsuit, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Mayor Nutter are to blame for implementing more aggressive stop-and-frisk policies. The suit accuses Ramsey and Nutter of “failing to properly train, supervise and discipline officers who routinely violate civil rights,” the Daily News reported.

Commissioner Ramsey declined to comment on the suit, and Mayor Nutter has argued that stop-and-frisk is legal if used correctly.

But that’s a big if. The findings of the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the civil rights lawyers who filed the lawsuit cast serious doubt as to whether city police officers know how to carry out stop-and-frisks in a non-discriminatory way. In the suit, the civil rights attorneys demand that police be prohibited from stopping and frisking residents based on race or nationality, or without reasonable suspicion.

The only Philadelphians who should be targeted by police are those suspected of committing crimes. Having dark skin is not synonymous with guilt.

Call on Mayor Nutter to stop aggressively promoting a stop-and-frisk policy that puts people of color at risk for police harassment.

Photo Credit: Fourth Floor