May 16, 2012, New York –Today, a federal judge granted class certification in a lawsuit challenging the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) stop-and-frisk practices as unconstitutional and racially discriminatory. The ruling will allow all persons unlawfully stopped and frisked since January 2005 to be plaintiffs in the lawsuit. In 2011, the NYPD reported a record 685,724 stops—a 600 percent increase since Raymond Kelly took over as NYPD commissioner in 2002. Eighty-four percent of those stopped were Black or Latino, and 88 percent of persons stopped were not arrested, nor did they receive summonses.

Click here to read full article