In response to the article, “East Harlem’s 23rd Precinct Leads Manhattan in Stop and Frisks” by Jeff Mays on February 6, 2013, I am writing to propose some solutions and shine a light on a few opinions that I have on the issue. East Harlem is, in fact, a big place. It is also a quite dangerous one. Crimes are committed there almost everyday. Stores are held up, gangs roam the streets, and drug deals take place on a daily basis. There are so many people inhabiting the area, that it is virtually impossible to pinpoint specific people that might be capable of, or responsible for, performing any of these illegal acts. Consequently, the New York City Police Department has conjured up a method for preventing these crimes from happening in the first place. Stop-and-frisk involves randomly searching people who are exhibiting “suspicious behavior” and pose a potential threat to the community. Stop-and-frisk is supposed to involve frisking a person of any race or ethnicity who is showcasing suspicious activity. But, instead, the police officers in East Harlem have been targeting only the African-American residents, which is, of course, racial profiling. The NYPD needs a new non-discriminatory method when it comes to protecting the public safety of people in notorious neighborhoods.


According to Jeff Mays’ article, the most prevalent reason for stop-and-frisk was for suspicion of weapons possession. His article stated that African-Americans, or Blacks, “make up 25.5% of residents in East Harlem.” However, in contrast to this small percentage, Blacks “make up almost 61% of stop-and-frisks in the 23rd precinct” and “half of all known suspects” in the area. How can it be that there is such small number of Black residents in East Harlem and such a high number of Black people being frisked? The answer is simple: these numbers just don’t add up. And, according to other sources, this may have been done on purpose. As stated on the website NYCLU.org, “only 11% of stops in 2011 were based on a description of a violent crime suspect”. This conclusion was reached by the NYPD when they conducted a study on how stops conducted by the police compare to the capture of actual crime suspects. Because the number of Blacks in East Harlem is so small, it would be highly unlikely that the suspects the police are actually looking for are even there. This means that most of the stop-and-frisks performed on these people are done completely at random. How likely is it that the next Black man you see on the street will be carrying a gun? Minimal. One can only imagine the fear that innocent people in this neighborhood have to endure everyday when they step outside their front doors. They never know whether or not they will be the next person to be wrongfully frisked. For people in East Harlem, this suspense is entirely horrendous.


Since stop-and-frisk has been proven to target people of the Black minority race, it causes tension within community-police relations in notorious neighborhoods. These neighborhoods include East Harlem. As an East Harlem resident myself, it pains me to see the way that most people in my neighborhood feel about the NYPD. There have been times when I heard residents, especially the youth, speaking derogatorily of the police based on their own experiences with the officers. I once walked past two teenage boys near a corner store. One of the boys was talking about how he had recently been mugged outside of his apartment building. The other boy told him that he should consult with the officers at the precinct for help. The boy who had been mugged snickered and said, “They’d probably pat me down before I even had the chance.” It is statements like this that really concern me. It is an absolute shame that the residents in East Harlem cannot even trust the very people that are hired by the city to help and protect them. Why would the police search the person who is the victim of a crime? They do things like this, and then, when the residents get mad and lash out against the cops, they get labeled with the “savage” stereotype that has already been given to almost all African-Americans. Blacks want to trust the police, but they can’t because of this brutality that they have to go through. The NYPD needs to stop searching the wrong people if they are going to make their relationship with minorities better. They should compile a list of suspects (with photographs). Then, they should go out and look for those exact people. If the person that the police have stopped is not the person in the photograph, then they have no business stopping them in the first place. The only exception to this is if the police specifically saw this person do something illegal. With this method, there will not be anymore confusion or misunderstanding when someone who is innocent gets searched unnecessarily.

Above all, stop-and-frisk is unfair, prejudiced, and needs to be stopped. Just because a person is Black, that does not mean that they are a threat to the public. In regards to the aforementioned facts that “Blacks make up half of all known suspects” in East Harlem, and “Blacks make up almost 61% of stop-and-frisks” in the neighborhood, the police need find other people to search. By only searching Blacks, they are not only showcasing racial profiling, but are also putting everyone in the neighborhood at risk. There are many other ethnicities in East Harlem (Hispanic being predominant), so it is more likely that a person of a different race committed the crime that the Black resident is being suspected of. The police need to explore all possibilities instead of targeting only one group of people so that the real guilty parties don’t get away with their crimes. This unfair form of law enforcement has caused too many innocent people unnecessary anger, turmoil, and violation. East Harlem residents deserve justice just like every other neighborhood. After failed protests, lawsuits, and proposed reforms, only one other solution remains-- it is time for the police to take action. If you were to ask me, I would say, “Come on, NYPD, something must be done.” And I hope I’m not the only one who thinks so.