Giuliani may be gone, but his legacy lives on
By Simon J Black
Published: 03/14/2005
Rudy Giuliani may no longer be New York’s mayor, but his legacy lives on in the practices of the New York Police Department.
I’ve only been in New York City
for a month, but I’ve already been introduced to the NYPD and the legacy of
Rudy Giuliani. On my way home from a local Thai restaurant, toothpick in mouth,
I was grabbed from behind. A man spun me around and pushed me up against the
brick wall of my local drug store. He flashed his NYPD badge and identified
himself as a police officer. Two uniformed officers got out of their nearby car
to give their plain clothed associate some back up. The cop accused me of
smoking marijuana before proceeding to search my pockets and frisk me from head
to toe. He smelt my fingers for good measure. After finding nothing, he made no
apology, just a couple of grunts.
According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the “stop-and-frisk” is a
widely used NYPD practice that received the support and encouragement of former
Mayor Giuliani in his crusade against crime. However, “white” people like me
are not usually the target of the random checks carried out by the Street Crime
Unit (SCU). Introduced in 1997, during the heart of Giuliani’s rule, the NYPD’s
“Strategy ‘97—Goal Oriented Neighborhood Policing” beefed up the SCU and
emboldened their guerilla style policing. In Manhattan, NYPD units produced 28,359 (20.3
percent) stop and frisk reports in 1998. Reports contain the name, address, and
description of the person stopped regardless of whether they were charged for
an offence. Of these reports, approximately 48.6 percent of those
citizens stopped were classified as black, 37.4 percent as Hispanic, 11.6
percent as white, and 2 percent as Asian. The population of Manhattan is approximately 41.9 percent
white, 26.7 percent black, 20.5 percent Hispanic, and 10.3 percent Asian. The
statistics for the other four boroughs are equally disturbing. Nonetheless, the
NYPD continues to claim that racial profiling is not police policy.
Giuliani’s terms in office, and his “zero-tolerance” approach to crime,
heightened racial tension and the relationship between the NYPD and communities
of colour has been left in serious disrepair. The 1999 fatal shooting of an
unarmed African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, by four white SCU officers during an
attempted “stop-and-frisk” triggered massive demonstrations and calls for the
dismantling of the infamous unit. The only African-American women in the SCU
publicly stated that racial profiling in the unit’s operations was standard
practice; the officer was subsequently fired by the NYPD. The NYPD claims that
it dismantled the SCU in 2002. Whatever its status, the Street Crime Unit’s
practices appear to be alive and well.
Chances are thousands more New Yorkers, and overwhelmingly people of colour,
will be subject to a “stop-and-frisk”. Some, like me, will walk away from the
ordeal relatively unscathed, their civil liberties offended. Others may not be
so lucky. In today’s New York,
Giuliani may be gone, but his legacy lives on.
Published in www.rabble.ca