Mobilizing Victims Of Stop And Frisk To Vote

Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly Still promote NYPD’s discredited unconstitutional stop-and-frisk policy

Communities United for Police Reform will begin citywide effort to mobilize voters impacted by stop-and-frisk.

In the upcoming 2013 election in New York City, voters will be choosing a new mayor, comptroller, public advocate and several borough presidents, as well as at least 20 new members of the City Council. The use of stop-and-frisk has increased by more than 600% during the Bloomberg administration.

The NYPD has conducted more than 5 million stops of New Yorkers during this administration – close to 90% of those stopped are Black or Latina/o and nearly 90% are neither arrested nor receive a summons. Discriminatory profiling has led to thousands of New Yorkers being subjected to suspicion-less stops, which are being challenged in the ongoing federal class-action lawsuit, Floyd v. City of New York.

Unlawful searches during stops have resulted in the explosion of low-level marijuana arrests, costing taxpayers anywhere from $500 million to more than $1 billion and the NYPD approximately one million hours of police time during the Bloomberg administration. According to the most recent Quinnipiac poll, a majority of New Yorkers are opposed to the Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy.

WHAT: Press conference to announce non-partisan campaign to mobilize thousands of prospective voters.

WHO: Communities United for Police Reform.

Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of New York Civil Liberties Union, Linda Sarsour, Executive Director of Arab American Association of New York, Vivian Truong, Coordinator of the Asian Youth in Action Program of CAAAV, Make the Road NY, VOCAL-NY, New Yorkers impacted by stop-and-frisk and discriminatory policing.

WHEN: Monday, May 6, 2013 at 12 Noon.

WHERE: Steps of City Hall, Lower Manhattan
 

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