Government officials from the southern states once used literacy tests and poll taxes to deny African Americans their right to vote. It was a scandalous period in American history. Today, we have another scandal, but it is found in one of our most liberal cities: New York’s “stop and frisk” program.
Even though there is no bigotry at work, it’s a scandal because the program systemically denies thousands of that city’s residents of their constitutional right against unreasonable searches and detentions.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo seems to recognize the severity of the problem. This week, he proposed decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana in public view. For years, thousands of young men in New York City have been acquiring criminal arrest records because of minor pot busts following a stop and frisk on the street by police.
By way of background, a “stop” is an involuntary citizen-police encounter—but it is an encounter that has not yet escalated to the point of a full blown arrest.
In other words, the person has not been handcuffed and taken into custody, but neither is he free to walk away. Often in full view of neighbors or passersby, the person may have to “assume the position” by placing his outstretched arms against a wall or the hood of a police car; or even lay down, prostrate, on the sidewalk.
It can be a degrading and humiliating event to endure.
The leading case on the so-called stop-and-frisk search is Terry v. Ohio (1968). In Terry, the Supreme Court held that a police officer could temporarily deprive persons of their liberty on the basis of what the Court called “reasonable suspicion,” which is a lower legal standard than “probable cause.”
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