A federal judge in New York has given the go ahead for a class action
lawsuit to move forward against the city’s police department over
allegations that its stop-and-frisk program has continuously allowed
officers to discriminate against minorities.
In a ruling made Wednesday by US District Judge Shira Scheindlin, the
pending suit against the NYPD, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and
others was granted class action status.
Authorities seem nonplussed.
When
asked for his take on Judge Scheindlin’s decision, NYPD Commissioner
Ray Kelly told the New York Times that he had no comment because the
litigation was continuing, but offered one quip: “It is what it is.”
Mayor
Bloomberg also said he couldn’t comment specifically on the ruling,
but, according to the Associated Press, had some words nonetheless.
"Nobody
should ask Ray Kelly to apologize – he's not going to and neither am I –
for saving 5,600 lives. And I think it's fair to say that stop,
question and frisk has been an essential part of the NYPD's work; it's
taken more than 6,000 guns off the streets in the last eight years, and
this year we are on pace to have the lowest number of murders in
recorded history. … We're not going to do anything that undermines that
trend and threatens public safety,” said the mayor.
http://rt.com/usa/news/judge-nypd-new-york-418/
