Headline Jan 11, 2015/

''' STOP -O'' SIRES! ''' : 

MR STOP + MISS FRISK '''

ONLY  -JUST SO very recently, there was that sad and sombre scene on CNN of a funereal for two police officers.

Both killed in cold blood while in  line of duty. 

!WOW!  has  begun to reason if ''Justice Is Death? ''

Like any thrower of hissy fits,  -the developing world has its own dimensions of police work. !WOW! hopes and plans to research and  cover it in the days ahead. But for now, I return to the following writing: 

ON HIS WAY home from a local bodega, 13 year-old student  Devin Almonor, who is black, was stopped by an unmarked car that pulled up beside him.

Two white  plain-clothes police officers got out and began questioning him. They patted him down as they questioned him, but found only his mobile phone in his pocket.

They then pushed the boy up against the car and handcuffed him, and  put him in the back seat of their car. 

Student Devin Almonor began to cry.

One officer asked him why he was crying, ''like a little girl''. Devin the son of a retired policeman and now 18, believes he was targeted because of his race,

He was the first witness in the federal class-action lawsuit filed against the New York Police Department  (NYPD)  and New York City. The plaintiffs contend that the NYPD's-

Stop-and-frisk policy amounts to racial profiling and is thus  *unconstitutional*.

Stops increased from 115,000  in 2002   to  685,000  in 2011. 

More than half of those stopped were also frisked. Nearly 90%  of the stops were of black and Latino men, even though they make up only 25% and 28% of the city's population.

Most of those stopped were innocent, and only  6%  of stops led to an arrest. Only 780 guns were found in 2012, a rate of  0.15%.

Police may stop people on suspicion that they are committing or about to commit a crime. City Hall and the police say stops have helped cut crime, making New York America's safest big city.

Joseph Esposito, who recently retired as police chief, testified that performance goals exist, to fight-crime, not to meet quotas.

Not everyone is convinced. The  NAACP, a civil-rights group, says that ending stop and frisk is  ''a national priority''. The policy then  became political, with candidates in the race for mayor calling for it to end.

Christine Quinn, the front-runner at the time and the council Speaker, supported a bill that would create an  inspector-general, much like the one in Los Angeles and in the FBI:

To investigate and monitor  police practices. Others, like ex-cop Eugene O' Donnell of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, think an inspector-general

Would be a toothless layer of bureaucracy that the beat police officer does not need, 

In 2011 Philadelphia also found itself in federal court over  stop and frisk. The city agreed to retrain its police. The number of stops fell by 15%  between 2009 and 2012.

Oakland, California, which was in the middle of crime wave,  recently hired William Bratton, a former New York police commissioner, as a consultant to advise on police tactics.

Many in this left-leaning city were none too happy about the arrival ''Mr Stop and Miss Frisk''.

James Forman of  Yale Law School, prefers  ''focussed deterrence''  which targets a few known criminals and relies on community involvement.

High Point, a city of North Carolina, saw violent crime fall by half after implementing it.  

A decision in the New York case was not expected soon. The judge had to remind both sides that the case is about  policy's unconstitutionality, not stop and frisk's effectiveness.

After a public outcry, new police training and the rank and file's reluctance to stop people, the number of stops in New York City fell to  533,042 in 2012.

Shooting and murders fell too.

With respectful dedication to all the police forces in the world. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' The  Beat  &  The  Briefing '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless