Last week, U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled against proponents New York City’s stop-and-frisk searches finding that the policy violates the constitutional rights of minorities. The city had since appealed that ruling.
The ruling was a topic for debate on this weekend’s broadcast of “The McLaughlin Group.” Real estate tycoon and media mogul Mort Zuckerman reminded viewers of New York City before the controversial policy was in place and attributed it to the city’s dramatic drop in crime.
Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?,”derided the ruling and said that even though it’s profiling, it’s only a logical step in the process of fighting crime.
“It’s ridiculous,” Buchanan said. “But John [McLaughlin], here is the point — 83 percent of the stop-and-frisk are black and Hispanics. But something like 96 percent of your robberies, cabby shootings, muggings are done by black and Hispanic folks. Do they profile them? Yes, they profile them, but they profile young people. Is that ageism? They profile not women, but men and they profile blacks and Hispanics because they are responsible. Young blacks and Hispanics are responsible for 96 percent of the crime. Excuse me, but you go where the ducks are.”
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Buchanan and Zuckerman’s other two co-panelists, The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim came out on the other side of stop-and-frisk.
“Racial profiling happens to be against the law,” Clift said. “And so the judge has not thrown out this law overwhelmingly. She is basically saying that there should be more oversight. I don’t see what the big objection is to having a small camera if the cops know that they are being watched. Maybe they will behave for responsibly. I think it is pretty obvious that there is police abuse of the warrantless searches. The people that feel victimized, they are the overwhelming majority that the people have been stopped who are innocent and they feel victimized by the police now.”