NEW: Groups Denounce ‘Stop & Frisk’ Policy in Providence
Friday, June 15, 2012
Seven organizations today sent a letter to Providence Commissioner of Public Safety Steven Pare, criticizing the city police department’s plans to engage in an aggressive “stop and frisk” program in response to a recent spate of gun violence in the city.
Deploring the racial profiling inherent in such police practices, the groups’ letter stated: “Stepping up the humiliating and dehumanizing questioning and frisking of our minority youth without cause is a simplistic approach to a complex problem and one that we believe will do more harm than good.”
Below is the text of the letter:
“Our organizations are very concerned about the gun violence taking place on Providence’s city streets. We are also profoundly concerned about the deep- rooted problem of racial profiling that plagues those same streets. We were therefore extremely disappointed and distressed to read comments in today’s Providence Journal that, in order to deal with the first problem, the police department plans to exacerbate the latter one. Specifically, the article notes that city police plan to engage in ‘more vehicle stops for minor infractions...which can lead to questions fro the police and frisking.’ This approach is, we believe, very short-sighted.
“We don’t wish to minimize the difficulties faced by police in dealing with the proliferation of guns, but practices that only increase the harassment that innocent black, Latino and Southeast Asian teenagers already face on a daily basis from police officers is no solution. The news story notes that witnesses were believed to be at the scene of the most recent gun murder, but have not come forward. There may be many reasons for this, including fear of retaliation, but a lack of trust between residents of the community and the police is surely an important part of it as well. Intensified stop-and-frisk practices only deepen that mistrust.
“Stepping up the humiliating and dehumanizing questioning and frisking of our minority youth without cause is a simplistic approach to a complex problem and one that we believe will do more harm than good. We strongly urge you to reconsider and reject this strategy.”
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Comments:
tom brady
7:06am on Saturday, June 16, 2012
When I take my daily drive into Providence, whether on 146 or 295, I see State Troopers with cars pulled over on a daily basis. Almost every driver is a person of color. hmmm
Michael Trenn
7:38am on Saturday, June 16, 2012
12 shootings, and at least five (or is it seven) murders so far this year. Why don't the libgroups protest that?
pearl fanch
8:36am on Saturday, June 16, 2012
“Stepping up the humiliating and dehumanizing questioning and frisking of our minority youth without cause is a simplistic approach to a complex problem and one that we believe will do more harm than good.”
How in the hell is that possible? If young minority people are killing each other, why is it profiling, to question them?
I say give them all guns, confine the area that they're in, and let them all kill each other until they're gone.
ACLU has helped destroy this country.
Ed Jucation
9:04am on Saturday, June 16, 2012
If the shoe fit wear it. Minority youth are murdering other minority youth. It is NOT profiling to search minority youth because they are the ones committing the crime. Whenever the cops want to become aggressive toward obviously EVIL people there are always groups protesting. Maybe one of these minority youth will murder one of their family members. That might change their mind.
Wuggly Ump
8:45am on Monday, June 18, 2012
The same people that are against finding the bad guys are the same ones that want to take everyone else's right to carry a gun away.
When I go to the supermarket I don't look for fresh vegtables in the bakery. Why? 'cause fresh vegtables aren't in the bakery section. If police are going to find the kids with guns they have to search kids in the area where the shootings are occurring.
The police are not doing a blanket search, they are enforcing existing regulations. If they find something more and this action saves some one, isn't that worth it?
COMMON SENSE isn't common any more.
On the other hand "pearl french" has good idea as long as the're killing each other it saves us court costs.