This Is Why It Sucks to Be Stopped and Frisked in New York City

Long before the NYPD's signature program went to trial, men of color have documented their experiences. Here's what they have to say.

By Jamilah King Mar 18, 2013

Today marks the beginning of an important trial in New York City to determine the constitutionality of the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk program. Long before the NYPD’s signature program went to trial, men of color have documented their experiences. Here’s what they have to say. Back in 2010, the [Colorlines.com team made its way to Brownsville, Brooklyn](https://colorlines.com/archives/2010/08/voices_from_brooklyn_racial_profilings_part_of_everyday_life_here.html), a largely black and Latino neighborhood that’s considered by many to be the epicenter of the Stop-and-Frisk program. We heard first hand accounts from young men who said they’d been stopped up to twenty times. The takeaway: it sucks. While there has been a ton of really important reporting on the impact of Stop-and-Frisk, there wasn’t much documented evidence of what the ordeal entails. That all changed in the fall of 2012 when [TheNation.com published exclusive video](http://www.thenation.com/article/170413/stopped-and-frisked-being-fking-mutt-video) recorded by a young man named Alvin, who recorded his encounter with cops in Harlem. The [New York Times has had some stellar reporting](http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/06/12/opinion/100000001601732/the-scars-of-stop-and-frisk.html) that’s uncovered important details about Stop-and-Frisk. Reporters there dug through data and came up with hard numbers on how black and Latino young men are disproportionately stopped, and how so few of those stops actually result in finding illegal firearms.