After Mayor Bloomberg announced that he would not be evacuating the prisoners at Rikers Island under the threat of then-Hurricane Irene, a backlash grew against the administration given the total shutdown of the MTA, mandatory evacuations of thousands of New Yorkers, and the horrific lessons of Katrina. "It is appalling that the City administration is abandoning the men and women at Rikers," Center for Constitutional Rights director Vince Warren said in a statement. CCR urged that the lives of the 12,000 prisoners on Rikers "should not be treated as less valuable than those of other New Yorkers." more ›

A study of data concerning NYPD stop and frisk practices was released by the Rand Corporation last Tuesday. Reactions to the report were so varied that it's difficult to say if Rand came to any conclusive findings whatsoever. The New York Times lede indicates that police are biased against blacks and Hispanics. "Whites and members of minorities have a roughly equal chance of being stopped by police officers and questioned on the street in New... more ›