In NY the spirit of Bloomberg's "stop and frisk" lives on.
We moved to Brooklyn last June and I’m still learning my way.
We left our car behind in Chicago. The bus, the train and ride-sharing as a last resort are now our primary means of transportation.
I have found that at many times during the day the train is a way faster way into the City than taking a Lyft. And cheaper, of course.
But, I’m still trying to wrap my head around this place.
For example, why is the City’s mayor, Eric Adams, spending so much money, personnel and energy of catching bus fare evasion?
As best as I can figure, this goes back to Rudy Giuliani and his “broken windows” theory.
In the city of Wall Street, Rudy argued that it was the small stuff that created the biggest problems. He flooded poor, Black and Brown communities with lots of cops.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg followed up with “Stop and Frisk.”
(In 2020), a 2015 video resurfaced in which Bloomberg defended stop and frisk in racist terms. In the video, he claimed “95 percent of murders, murderers, and murder victims” were “male minorities 16 to 25” and that one could “take the description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all cops.” He later added, “We put all the cops in minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is. And the way you get guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them.”
In August 2013, federal district court judge Shira Scheindlin found that stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional. New York’s stop-and-frisk era formally ended in January 2014, when newly- elected Mayor Bill de Blasio settled and ended the program.
But to me, and to lots of others, stop-and-frisk lives on in new and creative ways under Mayor Adams.
Like now there is a crackdown on jay-walking.
Let me first say that when I walk the half a mile to my closest train I cross a half dozen streets with traffic lights. Neither I nor anybody else pays attention to the lights. We look to see if a car is coming and when it is clear, we cross. Red light be damned.
But suddenly the City has cracked down on jay-walking and 90% of the tickets have gone to people of color.
Almost half the bus riders in the city evade paying the $2.90 fare.
The transit system says this costs them $300 million a year out of a $20 billion budget.
Enforcement has been concentrated in New York’s Black neighborhoods such as Brownsville in Brooklyn.
Like stop-and-frisk
This inevitably led to tragedy.
New York is currently in the middle of a corruption scandal involving a large number of those close to Mayor Eric Adams.
When I talk to New York friends and those on the street, they often shrug. It’s what politicians do.
But the continuation of “stop-and-frisk” in other forms cuts closer to the bone.
I recall how the killing and cover-up of Laquan McDonald in Chicago led to Mayor Rahm Emanuel getting ousted.
And as I learn more about my new home, I wonder where this will lead.