Reality Busts Through the Door of the New York Post

Despite Editorial Page’s Stance in Favor of Racially Biased Stop-and-Frisk Tactics, the Humiliation of One of their Reporters at the Hands of the NYPD is Too Much to Ignore

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org

In a gripping first-person account, New York Post reporter Leonardo Blair, an African-American Columbia University journalism school graduate, told of his groundless stop-and-frisk account at the hands of two NYPD officers:

I was just trying to get home.

It was 8:20 p.m. Wednesday, and I had just finished parking my 1993 Toyota Camry along Arnow Avenue in the Allerton section of The
Bronx, where I have been living with my family since graduating from Columbia University last May.

Less than a block from my door, I heard a car’s squeaking brakes. I would have ignored the sound if I hadn’t seen an NYPD squad car out
of the corner of my eye. I was relieved for a moment – until I saw the officers’ faces.

Visit here
(http://www.nypost.com/seven/12022007/news/regionalnews/my_crime__just_fitting_the_profile_611557.htm) to read the full account.

Though Mr. Blair’s story is gripping, it is sadly far from unique.

Between January 2006 and September 2007, NYPD officers stopped and frisked 867,617 New Yorkers — a startling rate of 1,360 every day. Almost 90 percent of those stopped were innocent.

The racial disparities are stark: Police stopped 453,042 blacks and only 94,530 whites during that period.

Mr. Blair’s experience shows just how misguided The Post’s own editorial stance has been.

Visit here (http://www.nypost.com/seven/11232007/postopinion/editorials/nypds_clean_profile_307788.htm) to read The Post’s most recent editorial on the subject, a gross misrepresentation of facts and an affront to common sense.

The next time The Post’s editorial writers seek to dismiss valid complaints against the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics as “race-baiting,” perhaps they should walk across the newsroom and have a conversation with Leonardo Blair.