News

NYC march against police street stops planned

Published: May 15, 2012 1:48 PM

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Civil rights activists are planning a silent march to protest the New York City police department’s policy of stopping hundreds of thousands of people in the street each year and frisking them for weapons.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, leaders from the NAACP, religious leaders and politicians will hold the march June 17th in Harlem. It will coincide with Father’s Day.

The police department last year stopped more than 600,000 people, mostly black and Hispanic men. Half were frisked, and about 80 percent were never arrested. The department says it’s a necessary, crime-fighting tool that saves lives.

Critics say it is racial profiling. NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous says the practice needlessly humiliates law-abiding people.