Students Share their Opinion on Stop and Frisk

 

A July rally in San Francisco opposes stop and frisk. (Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez)

By Yaribel Genao

Seventeen year-old, college now student, Joshua Colome, was coming out of a party with his friend at 1am when a police officer came and stopped them.

“The police started checking us, I was confused didn’t know why, there was no reason for him to do that, we were just walking,” Colome said.

Then the officer found a knife in Joshua’s friend pocket and he took it. “ I was offended,” Colome said, “I wanted to cry at that moment.”

Colome added that he is not against or in favor stop and frisk but officers should only stop people when they have a good reason. “Stop and Frisk can be helpful, maybe in reducing crime, but still officers are invading people’s property” Colome said. “I don’t like that,.”

The NYPD’s stop and frisk practices have created different concerns for New Yorkers, with some in favor others are against the widespread practice.

Seventeen year-old student Eni Kokici said she is in favor of Stop and Frisk.
“It’s a good thing to have,” Kokici explained how she believes Stop and Frisk has a good impact on the state, as it helps crime to decrease, especially in such a big city as New York.

“People should not be bother if they don’t have nothing to hide,” Kokici added. “Just let police do their work, for our own safety,”

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) one of the public’s major concerns against Stop and Frisk is that police are mostly stopping Blacks and Latinos.

Seventeen years-old Emilio Del Valle, who has mixed race, said he is against Stop and Frisk because it is “obviously” racist and discriminating blacks and Latinos. “There are white people out there carrying weed, and they don’t get stopped,” he said. “I saw statistics that show 80 percent of people that get stopped are Latinos and Blacks,” Del Valle said.

Supporting Del Valle’s argument, the NYCLU found that, between 2002 and 2011, Black and Latino residents made up close to 90 percent of people stopped, and about 88 percent of stops-more than 3.8 million- were of innocent New Yorkers, who were found to carry nothing illegal.

Kokici mention she disagree with the race arguments that people against Stop and Frisk are making. “Sometimes officers are looking for a people with a certain characteristics, officers can make a mistake and stop the wrong person,” Kokici said.