http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/opinion/police-stop-and-frisks.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

LETTER

Police Stop-and-Frisks

Published: December 29, 2011

To the Editor: 

In “Why Is the N.Y.P.D. After Me?” (Sunday Review, Dec. 18), Nicholas K. Peart illustrates how the lives of young black men are violated regularly by the police, usually without any merit.

Our analysis of 2009 stop-and-frisk data for the New York police shows that 94 percent of stops in 2009 did not lead to an arrest. The analysis also showed that there were 132,000 stops of black men 16 to 24. This is particularly striking since according to Census Bureau data that we examined, only 120,000 black men of that age lived in New York City in 2009. So on average, every young black man can be expected to be stopped and frisked by the police each year.

We cannot accept that so many young people experience their lives this way, particularly at such a formative stage. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s recent Young Men’s Initiative made little attempt to address stop-and-frisk policy. We must stop treating young black men like criminals and start thinking of them as potential assets to our recovering and growing economy and society. Until we do, our efforts to improve their education and employment prospects will be hollow.

LAZAR TRESCHAN
Director of Youth Policy
Community Service Society
of New York
New York, Dec. 19, 2011