Persuasive Essay On Stop And Frisk

Thomas Jefferson once said, “A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.” Some communities constantly face complications such as being illegally searched by the police. As citizens, the fourth Amendment gives us the right as people to be secure in our persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable search. But it seems as if the Fourth Amendment has lost its authority when it comes to Stop and Frisk programs. People think that it prevents crimes, but these searches are often unsuccessful at catching criminals. It’s a violation of rights and I believe that no police department should be able to do it. The police are supposed to serve and protect us. Instead, people no longer feel safe around police. In fact many have come to fear them. The idea of Stop and Frisk has created many problems in today’s society. There are debates over NYC about the policy of stop and frisk. Some people think it’s good for us, but there are others who don’t really appreciate it. People who are against it think that the police are invading their personal space, and even
harassing them. Others don’t care. They feel that it keeps the streets safe, prevents crimes, and gets the criminals off the streets. Well, I believe that police officers are taking it way too far with the Stop-and-Frisk program. I fell they are completely violating us as citizens and ignoring the Bill of Rights and the fourth Amendment. It amazes me that some of the people in our society believe that Stop-and-Frisk actually works!
They believe that Stop and Frisk policy keeps communities safe and prevents crimes from taking place. But these searches done by police are not just unconstitutional, it is an invasion of privacy. This program is obviously not preventing crimes from happening. Statistics show that this program is ineffective. Based on data provided by NYPD, 179,063 were stopped and searched by police in 2013. Out of those people, 89% were completely innocent. Which means that they have found something on only 11% of the people. More than half of the time, there is no probable cause for them to stop and search these people, but they do it anyway. This just proves that theses searches do not effectively find criminals and instead violates the rights of innocent
citizens. People that are for Stop and Frisk feel it keeps drugs off the streets. They feel somebody’s life is being saved when a police officer finds a gun. Police often patrol the bad neighborhoods where crime only certain types high. People believe that this is not meant to stereotype, but homicide statistics show about half of all murders are committed by African American who represent just 12.6 percent of the population. Along with violating the rights of the people, it seems the Stop and Frisk program is fueled by racial discrimination. A very large amount of the stops made is of people who are African American or Latino. Minorities are targeted by the Stop and Frisk program. Racial profiling is clearly one of the main ways police officers choose to conduct these searches. Officers are also sometimes encouraged to point out minorities when they are on duty. That is not preventing crimes! Instead, it’s just making people hate police. People will not allow their rights to be violated and the racial discrimination to continue. Since the Stop and Frisk policy, nothing has improved. The streets haven’t changed and crimes did not drop. This madness has been going on since 1994. There are no positive effects of Stop and Frisk. This is why in 2013 the U.S Supreme court declared it to be unconstitutional. But there are some officers who do not obey this law. It seems like New York is the only state with this problem. The five boroughs as well as upstate New York.