Friday, October 21st 2011, 5:33 PM
Police arrest Cornel West during the civil disobedience protest over the NYPD's 'stop and frisk' policy
Hundreds gathered outside of the 28th Precinct stationhouse in Harlem Friday afternoon in a show of opposition to the NYPD's rampant use of the controversial tactic. Those who were arrested linked hands, blocking the entrance to the stationhouse.
"You have to fight arbitrary police power," said West, who was pinched earlier this week during an Occupy Washington D.C. protest. "We want to stop stop-and-frisk."
The NYPD, which stopped, questioned and often frisked a record 601,055 people last year, has come under fire for targeting blacks and Latinos in disproportionate numbers - and for stopping innocent people in the overwhelming majority of cases.
"You have to do nothing else except live in your neighborhood and be a young black or Latino male to be a suspect," Matt Main, of the National Lawyers Guild, told the Daily News.
Mayor Bloomberg has staunchly defended the tactic, and police brass say the initiative saves lives, particularly in minority communities.
The protesters had earlier marched on the sidewalk along 125th St. before massing outside of the stationhouse, chanting: "Stop and frisk has got to go!"
Among those arrested was John Hector, a Brooklyn Navy veteran, who is black. He said he was stopped and frisked last spring. "I served this country and I fought for this country," Hector said. "I come back here and I am treated like a criminal."
Many of those who were booked were eventually released from the 33rd Precinct stationhouse in Washington Heights, where a crowd gathered to greet them.
"People are so proud," Greg Allen, 39, of Harlem, who is white, said after being freed. "People are overwhelmingly like, 'Finally, I get to do this!'"
The protest was not part of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street sit-in for social change - but some said it was inspired by the huddled masses at Zuccotti Park.
"Occupy Wall Street has definitely started a wave and every other protest that goes on is able to ride that wave," said Christina Gonzalez, 25, of Far Rockaway.
The charges against West in the D.C. bust were dropped after he spent a night in jail. The Ivy League professor and famous civil rights activist has been a presence at the Occupy Wall St. encampment, which many in the Harlem crowd said have been marked by few black or Latino protesters.
"I realized there wasn't a lot of black and Latino presence at Occupy Wall Street," said Unique Garcia, 25, of East Flatbush. "Blacks and Latinos are more affected by what's going on, but they don't come out."
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| The activist and academic was taken into custody for disorderly conduct |
On Friday afternoon while protesting against New York City’s Stop and Frisk polices,West and about 30 others were taken into custody on disorderly conduct charges while rallying outside of a Harlem police precinct.
The group marched from a rally in Harlem to the precinct in an effort to bring attention to what they say are the discriminatory “pat-down” policies that they say unfairly target Black and Latinos.
The American Civil Liberties Union records indicate that more than 360,000 people were stopped and frisked by officers during the first six months of this year, and 88 percent were totally innocent, 51 percent were Black and 33 percent were Latino.
The NYPD said that some demonstrators did not comply with police orders to not block the entrance of the building and they were subsequently arrested. Most of the people detained will be issued a summons and released.
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