City Councilman Launches Legislative Effort To Reduce 'Stop-And-Frisks'
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A New York City Council member is launching a legislative effort to reduce the number of "stop-and-frisk" searches.
Councilman Jumaane Williams led a protest rally on the steps of City Hall Wednesday in which demonstrators chanted "No justice, no peace, no profiling our streets."
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"I'm preaching that the police are our community partners and we must work with them for the betterment of all, but it is an uphill battle when they feel police are not out there to protect them, but rather to target them," Williams said.
Williams has introduced a package of bills that would ban racial profiling, require police to seek consent before searching someone without a warrant and require police to give their name and rank to subjects that they stop.
Earlier in February, new numbers showed more than 680,000 stop-and-frisks were conducted by the NYPD in 2011. That number was a 14 percent increase from 2010.
More than 4 out of 5 individuals stopped were black or Latino.
Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, of East Harlem called the rally a "Tidal wave against a sea of injustice."
"Anytime that we ban together demanding accountability and transparency is a good day. Anytime that we ban together, demanding justice is a good day," she said.
Mark-Viverito said the landmark bills being introduced in the City Council show that "we are not standing silent anymore" and that transparency and accountability in policing were are the way.
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