its a bit off topic, but the lesson I see...is that the govt is interested in supressing certain types of crimes by certain types of people.

If you trying to get rich selling drugs, or if you're drinking in public, or some other crime of the lower classes....if the cops catch you, you will pay your time.

Other crimes, high class crimes, like say launching a war under false pretenses and then profitting from the spoils of the conflict, profitting from the collapse of peoples lives by shorting their mortages, leaking oil into the gulf of mexico - crimes like this...not procescuted so much.

People who do things like this wind up writing books, appearing on television, retiring rich and never spend a day in jail.

It seems as if when you commit crimes as part of the system, you're immune from the law.

My advice then for young people who want to get rich or be criminals (often the same thing) is that you learn from this. Don't fight the system. Get your law degrees, your MBAs, become cops, form corporations, become part of the system. Then you can be as criminal as your little hearts desire and you'll never be called out for it.

God speed.

You're right!

The NYPD should stop focusing on reducing the amount of crime and drugs on NYC streets, and instead focus on cleaning up the oil spill, shorting mortgages, the rest of the BS you wrote, blah blah blah.

As a latino and native New Yorker I can say that I am more scared of the NYPD than I am of criminals, and that's the truth. The problem here is the aggression that I have encountered when dealing with most (not all) police officers. My fear is not of being stopped and frisked because I don't carry any contraband that can lead to an arrest but that I can endure the dehumanizing, embarrassing, degrading experience without giving the officer any motive to arrest me for "disorderly conduct", a charge which if anyone looks at the numbers they will see that it's abused much too often and is usually tossed out by the judge. I've found far too many cops to be abrasive and arrogant in these situations and there really is no need and this disrespect can easily lead to words exchanged that will undoubtedly lead to your arrest and although they know that the charges will be dropped they win because you will spend a day, maybe two, in jail before the judge tosses it out. Knowing this every time I've encountered these situations (even in front of my son) I play their game and address them with utmost respect, "yes sir, no ma'am", etc. yet they still manage to talk down to me as if I was a second class citizen and I simply have to bite my tongue and swallow my pride and continue to kill them with kindness. Officers' attitudes during these stop and frisks create more animosity towards the police, and authority in general, than they deter crime, especially in teenagers. During our teen years we are begin to develop our sense of self and personality and when you have a hostile force constantly degrading or harassing you, it's hard not to develop contempt for them and the system they represent. I think if officers were more respectful and acknowledge that if anyone should feel violated in the situation it should be the person you are stopping and frisking. I dream of the day that an officer comes up to me and says "I'm sorry sir put due to the high level crime in this area we are conducting stop and frisk operations and unfortunately I will have to search you because ..... (and give reason for the search here) but it should only take 5 minutes and you'll be on your way" instead of the usually screaming cop, sometimes with his gun in his hand, yelling "get up against the wall!" Don't these officers have empathy or are trained to understand these situations? Under these circumstances its a normal reaction to question "What happened? What did I do?" yet they take it as a form of disrespect and their attitude is "just do as I say or how dare you question me" and this attitude leads to unnecessary conflicts.

I also think that a majority of these "stop and frisks" are unconstitutional and the numbers in this article seem to prove it. If takes violating 575,000 citizens' rights to get 762 guns off the street, then that is a number that I'm not comfortable with, not in America. I'm sure that if the NYPD began raiding homes in the hopes of finding contraband they'd undoubtedly find some, but what about the homes where there's no contraband? How can you justify violating their right to privacy and illegal search and seizure?

My biggest concern regarding these "Stop and Frisk" operations is when they are used against minority teenagers. I find this to be a form of genocide against our youth. While the majority of arrests from these "stop and frisks" end up being for minor infractions such as loitering, trespassing, possession of marijuana, etc. it nonetheless ruins their future prospects by staining them with a criminal record for the rest of their lives. It seems that minority teenagers are being systematically targeted and given a Scarlet Letter that they must live with for the rest of his/her life. What happens when these young men and women decide they want to become a member of law enforcement? Will they be allowed despite having a conviction for a bag of marijuana in their youth? For example, the rate of marijuana use among teens in NYC is pretty consistent throughout all races but it is a fact that the chances of a minority teenager being arrested or having a criminal record because of it is much higher than non-minority teenagers in NYC. I know many will find the word genocide too strong for this argument but the definition of genocide is "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide ) " and I think it fits here because these "stop and frisk" operations are systematically destroying the city's minority teenagers' futures and I believe that outweighs the benefits.

So when 4 16 year olds with baggy pants and heavy jackets and red durags in summer are standing every day on the street corner infront of your house at 3 AM, there is nothing suspicious about that?

So you mean to say that every one of those 575,000 stop and frisked (stopped for being black or Latino) were 16 year olds with baggy pants and heavy jackets with red durags in the summer standing on the street corner everyday in front of someone's house at 3am?

I'll bet the average for that demographic is a lot higher than for 50 year olds in suits at the train station at 3pm...

And somehow I'm okay with that...

And somehow no one is surprised. Would love to see you stopped and frisked repeatedly.

Been there, thanks.

Stopped hanging out in shitty neighborhoods late at night and the problem stopped.

There's a reason why the number game is played, but there are never details as to who is stopped and frisked, although we already know, what are the ages, locations, reasons, truthful reasons if possible (yeah right), and the possibility these stop and frisked being 100% black and Latino (of course). Numbers are presented without these specifics because there is a lot hidden behind it. (Crime stats for example)

So you think it's all a racial thing?

You don't thing time and location factors would give a higher correlation to the stop and frisks?

I'd like to see a truly objective study of stop-and-frisk, which includes not only race but also averages of factors such as location and time.

Stop and frisk is a violation of the constitutions 4th amendment. It's racial profiling and should not be tolerated.

This stop and frisk thing (stopped for being black or Latino) is no different than the new Arizona law.... Also, if the nypd is looking towards having more public resentment, and having more police officers killed in the line of duty, they are doing a splendid job violating rights... No different than the new Arizona law

Correct, yet Bloomberg denounced Arizona and was NOT called out about the racial profiling his Police Commissioner practices and he praise. Why hasn't he been called a racist and the press call for boycotting NYC. Or is it acceptable that Black males citizens are stopped&frisked while the same people are outraged at Arizona,who is doing what the Federal Government failed t do. This clearly shows the racism in the media when it comes to African American citizens and it shows that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not only a liar, but a racist hypocrite. I am an American Black male who is outraged over this.

Bloomberg has already proven to be far out of touch with anything not related to his pockets. The man is sick and demented, and I find it difficult to grasp the slightest possibility of him even having a soul. But the real disturbing issue is, have you noticed Al sharpton slipping further away from such issues as this stop and frisk rights violations in NYC? But yet, he went down to Arizona in support of the opposition of the same violation of rights. Bloomberg has what it takes to silence the tungs of the media, politicians ect ect. $$$$$$$$

Sharpton is President Obama "point man" on race relations.He was invited to march in Arizona, so he went.He only goes where he's invited.I guess this is because of Obama and to gain support from African Americans who are against any form of relief for illegal aliens except deportation.

That's a six percent arrest rate.

34,000 arrests.

That's a lot of people who shouldn't have been walking around.

I don't know if they're "moms and grandmothers", but I'll bet that none of the people arrested as a result of the stop-and-frisk were on their way to sell their gun back.

"That's a lot of people who shouldn't have been walking around." Actually, the point is that we have no idea if that's true in any of these cases. There's that little matter of "innocent until proven guilty" and the stop and frisk data does not include details on how many of these arrests stood up in court.

What percentage of of any cases stand up in court?

Seems like there's always a slimy lawyer and a guilty lib willing to let someone walk.

That's why some of our killers have been arrested and released DOZENS of times.

We permit scumbags far too much leniency.

The data also does not include verbal warnings, and I see you left out the part where 6000 weapons other than guns were found.

So you believe that Tom Delay should have been locked up UNDERNEATH the prison, and the key tossed away? Because I HATE how the slimy lawyers and guilty libs let Tom Delay walk around breathing free American air like an honest man can.