Week 10: Only a Bit To Go

Welcome back to my senior project! We only have two more weeks together before the finale of my project. Knowing this I spent the week touching up the conclusion and finalizing the rest of my paper and research. I wanted to spend this week’s blog post discussing some interesting finds that I caught while looking back on my second section, the 10 example cases. One particular case that jumped out to me was the story of a young 17 year old latino individual stop and frisked while driving passenger in his friend’s car. This case is not only eye opening but has broader implications for stop and frisk as a whole. While cruising around with his friends a nearby cop noticed that the license plate had been moved over slightly and decided to pull it over. This car clearly had a group of latino men inside and the cop decided to frisk them all. Unfortunately for our defendant, they found small quantities of marijuana and an unlicensed handgun in his pocket. Once brought into the station the defendant then voices his concerns about how dangerous of a world it is out there and that he just merely found the handgun, hoping it would provide him with protection. He was not even sure if it was loaded or worked for that matter. He pleads not guilty to both charges of possession of a weapon in the second degree and possession of marijuana. While I am not allowed to discuss why he chose this unorthodox approach to his case, I can discuss what it could mean for stop and frisk in NYC.

The implications: Knowing some of the specifics of the case itself without any information I can’t share, it’s important to understand not only why the car was pulled over but what the defendant’s non guilty plea could mean. First, let’s discuss the initial stop. Now, the police officer claims that the license plate was moved over to a spot where it did not belong and thus he had reasonable suspicion. While this is true and the license plate of the car was improperly placed the act of frisking all individuals inside the car was not only unjust it was also stereotypically motivated. The police officer claims to have smelled marijuana inside the car and on certain individuals, the defendant in this case was not only sober but did not smell of marijuana at all causing his frisk to be motivated by nothing other than his latino heritage and accompaniment of his peers. Now that we understand the reasons for the stop and frisk its important to look at what the defendants’ not guilty plea could mean for stop and frisk as a practice. By pleading not guilty it means that there will be a trial and subsequent reporting on the case by various media outlets. This will cause more eyes on stop and frisk in the New York City area and bring even more scrutiny to the already controversial practice. Cases like this are not one-of; there are countless people of color being stopped and frisked still to this day in NY and its cases like this that shine an even brighter light on the practice. I will delve even deeper on this case in my paper but for now simple blog posts like this can help nudge us in a future without discriminatory practices predating on people of color in this city. Thank you for reading this weeks blog post and I hope you come by next week for the second to last update of my blog!