The family of a 15-year-old honor student is suing the city after she was tackled by plainclothes police officers after matching the profile of a shoplifter. Last Friday afternoon, police in the 78th Precinct received a description of shoplifters as "two female black teens, dark hair," one with a ponytail. Brittany Rowley was walking down Prospect Park West with a friend; the two were on the way to the library. Suddenly an unmarked police car appeared. “I thought we were being abducted,” Rowley tells the Daily News. The girls ran, but two officers tackled them. "Why did you fucking run? I should punch you," Rowley says one officer told her. more ›

The NYPD is on pace to break last year's record 601,055 stop-and-frisks (that's 1,900 people a day). According to the Times, the department released data yesterday (on a Saturday? Hmmm) that shows police made 203,500 stops from January through March of this year—last year it was 183,326 during the same time period. Your move, McDonald's. more ›

If there's one place where Geraldo Rivera knew he could solidify his stupidity, it's Fox & Friends. The mustachioed reporter appeared on the Fox News program to offer his thoughts on the death of Trayvon Martin, "I believe that George Zimmerman, the overzealous neighborhood watch captain should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law and if he is criminally liable, he should be prosecuted" BUT Rivera continued, "I think [Martin's] hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman was." more ›

The Florida police chief who has mishandled the investigation around the death of Trayvon Martin has stepped down temporarily. Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. said, "While I stand by the Sanford Police Department, its personnel and the investigation that was conducted in regards to the Trayvon Martin case, it is apparent that my involvement in this matter is overshadowing the process. Therefore, I have come to the decision that I must temporarily remove myself from the position as the police chief of the City of Sanford. I do this in hopes of restoring some semblance of calm to this city, which has been in turmoil for several weeks." more ›

Less than 24 hours after the police forced OWS protesters, a large group of protesters has convened at Union Square once again. This time, it's to protest the senseless death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin and show support for his family. Martin was fatally shot by a gated community neighborhood watch volunteer, who thought the 18-year-old was "suspicious" and armed, but it turned out that Martin was only carrying Skittles and iced tea while on his way to his father's girlfriend's home. more ›

Activists braved the rain and wind this afternoon to gather on the steps of City Hall for a press conference championing new legislation intended to curb discriminatory practices in NYPD's stop and frisk program. The legislation, which was proposed by Councilmember Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) and introduced today, aims to limit discriminatory profiling during NYPD stop and frisks; it would do this by broadening the legal definition of discrimination to include sex, gender identity, age and housing status. Jasmine Epps, 25, of the LGBT youth organization Streetwise and Safe, spoke with us of her own experiences being stopped and frisked by the NYPD while growing up in public housing in Brooklyn. more ›

14 Muslim leaders have fired off a sternly-worded letter to Mayor Bloomberg announcing their intention to boycott his annual interfaith breakfast on Friday, which brings together religious and political leaders from all over the spectrum for a friendly coffee klatsch. At issue is a damning series of articles in the Associated Press detailing the NYPD's targeting of Muslim communities for surveillance. Commissioner Ray Kelly has firmly denied this, telling the City Council, "We don't do it ethnically, we do it geographically. We don't racially profile, we follow leads wherever those leads take us." The NYCLU, however, calls it a "rogue domestic surveillance operation," and in November hundreds of Muslims demonstrated outside police headquarters. more ›

It's continuing to be a banner year for street shakedowns as the NYPD has stopped 514,000 people through September 2011, 13% higher than 2010. According to the NYCLU, 4 million people have been stopped since the program began in 2004. Did the lucky 4 millionth customer win a wheelbarrow full of NYPD swag? Were they allowed to keep their dignity and take a photo with NYPD's stop-and-frisk mascot, Patty, The Firm Hand Of Justice? more ›

World's Richest Historian Newt Gingrich visited a South Carolina radio station yesterday and began taking shots at the GOP's consistently milquetoast champion Mitt Romney, saying, “it’s wrong to go around and adopt radically different positions based on your need of any one electorate, because then people have to ask themselves, what will you tell me next time?” Gingrich should take his own advice, because what he told a deeply conservative crowd last night regarding illegal immigration sounded a lot different than his flirtation with "mercy" in front of a bunch of DC thinktank suits last week. more ›

The Internal Affairs Bureau will discipline three officers for their role in the arrest of a City Councilmember and another city official as they were leaving the West Indian Day Parade in September. Video that surfaced after the incident showed Councilmember Jumaane Williams and Public Advocate aide Kirsten John Foy arrested after they had identified themselves, and Foy was violently thrown to the ground and handcuffed. more ›

As if the NYPD's habit of stopping and frisking anyone and everyone officers find suspicious weren't controversial already, new police data makes it look like the police department is on track to break last year's record-breaking stop and frisk stats. In 2010, the NYPD made 601,055 street stops (up 4.3 percent from 2009) and in the first six months of this year alone the police used the tactic 362,150 times. Sadder, in the Bronx, at least, 91 percent of those stopped and frisked between April and June were male and 92 percent were black or Hispanic. Profiling much? more ›

It appears we spoke too soon when we declared the streets of New York City safe at last. The man who was allegedly caught stealing an iPhone 4 thanks to a nifty app called iGotYa, is denying that the photo is of him, and his family has produced photos to prove it. "This is embarassing," Brian Chattoo's mother tells the Daily News, which provides a photo of Chattoo. "That's not my son." Might as well go whole-hog with this Orwellian technology and hook iGotYa up with the NYPD's facial recognition technology. more ›

Police commissioner Ray Kelly is tasked with the important job of protecting us from Islam terrorism, and in order to do this effectively, he may have to spy on Muslims. To make a safety omelet, you have to crack a few Korans! Unfortunately, the city council didn't take too kindly to Kelly's counterterrorism tactics of trailing terror-denouncing imams or violating the rights of innocent people, and grilled him at a hearing on Thursday. Kelly can take care of himself, but the New York Post's editorial board is here to help: "Kelly refused to apologize for a decade of brilliant police work. Good for him." Damn straight. Love is never having to say "I'm sorry (I pulled you over because of the color of your skin)." more ›

Despite attempts to have it thrown out, the Center for Constitutional Rights' lawsuit accusing the NYPD of "stop and frisk" racial profiling will proceed. Yesterday Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled that there was enough evidence, stating, "This case presents an issue of great public concern... the disproportionate number of African-Americans and Latinos who become entangled in our criminal justice system, as compared to Caucasians." more ›

Not getting a ride to Brooklyn is annoying, being dragged hurts, and racial profiling is worse. But what really stings is being refused a life-saving ride to the hospital while you're gushing blood on the street. A 20-year-old Harlem man who was shot in his left arm in a housing project before running two blocks down 8th Ave to 150th street couldn't catch a cab to safety. A witness named "Strawberry" told the Post, "He tried to get a cab to take him to the hospital, but nobody was stopping for him. Four cabs passed him away." Note to the Post's editors: either her last name is "Shortcake," or someone may have counted on you not listening to a crucial line in a seminal N.W.A. track. more ›

If you're one of the NYPD's lucky stop-and-frisk customers this year (183,326 and counting!) the police is giving you a slightly less opaque reason as to why they roughed you up. New forms that officers fill out following a stop include a "Reason for Force Used" field that gives officers the choice of checking a box that describes the situation leading up to the rough stop. The choices are: "suspect reaching for suspected weapon" (like this innocent teenager), "suspect flight," "defense of self," "defense of other," and "overcome resistance." If those don't quite paint a nuanced picture of what happened, there's always the classic "other" box that allows the officer to jot down why you were worth their time. Presumably this is to save room on the form so they don't have to print both "brown" and "black." more ›

Now that the suspect in Friday night's livery cab driver shooting has been identified as Hispanic (at least from a black and white surveillance video), the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers is telling drivers to racially profile their passengers. Union head Fernando Mateo said, "I don't care about racial profiling. You know, sometimes it is good we are racially profiled, because the God's honest truth is that 99 percent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these drivers are blacks and Hispanics." But it's OK for him to say that because he's Hispanic! more ›

This weekend we talked to Jerrell Horton about his harrowing cab experience that occurred on Saturday night, when he was hopping into a cab in Manhattan—and like many before him—was met with a driver who did not like his destination of Brooklyn. Except unlike many before him, he was then dragged down the street by the driver. He sent the above photos and told us, "It was insane. He stopped, and when I told him my destination he took off while I was dragging from the door... He knew he was dragging me. I was injured." more ›

Police say the phoned-in hijacking threat that grounded American Airlines Flight 24, which was headed to JFK Airport, at San Francisco International Airport was "non-credible." The SF Chronicle says the call was made to an Almeda hotel clerk. The passengers on the flight were taken off the plane, questioned by authorities, had their belongings re-screened, and were allowed to book other flights. But one passenger wondered if two fellow travelers were racially profiled. more ›

In May there was some speculation about SoHo's Apple Store discriminating against Chinese people, with claims coming out that racial profiling was at work. Now word is that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating the claims that those of Asian descent are refused iPads due to smuggling fears. more ›

Remember those students from Queens who were returning from a college visit when they were pulled over, searched, and cuffed by New Jersey state police officers—sparking allegations of racial profiling and excessive force? Cops denied that the students' skin color had anything to do with the Jersey Turnpike traffic stop, insisting that they only pulled over the van because they received a 911 call warning them that van passengers were carrying guns. Well, it turns out one of the students in the van made that 911 call, according to officials. more ›

Sgt. Reginald McReynolds, a 19 year veteran of the NYPD, was returning to his girlfriend's Bronx apartment with their Chinese food one night at the end of October when he was stopped by a rookie cop and his partner. Officers Kyle Bach and Joseph Azevedo, who are white, were responding to a domestic dispute call in the building. The perp was described as in his late 20s and weighing about 150 pounds; McReynolds is a 42-year-old black man weighing in at 275 pounds. Nevertheless, McReynolds says Bach "came right up in my face and said, 'What fucking apartment are you going to?'" It's no surprise that the ensuing exchange wasn't all that courteous, professional, or respectful. more ›

In the wake of a Nigerian man's failed attempt to blow up an airplane as it landed in Detroit on Christmas, Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind is calling on authorities to instate a policy of ethnic profiling to stop would-be terrorists. According to CBS, the Borough Park Democrat — who was last spotted protesting against the inclusion of gays, gypsies, and the disabled at a Holocaust memorial — argues that politicians must "[l]et law enforcement do what it feels is necessary without tying their hands." more ›

One night last month, 11 black and Hispanic high school students were heading home to Jamaica, Queens after a visit to Howard University when they got had in an all-too-familiar encounter with New Jersey's finest. After the students had dinner at the rest stop near Exit 7A of the New Jersey Turnpike, someone called 911 to say that at least one youth was brandishing a gun. (Police say the caller warned of three youths with guns; the students and their three supervisors say troopers cited a report of a black male in a gray sweatshirt carrying a gun.) Regardless, the police reaction left the group outraged, the Times's Peter Applebome reports. more ›

In late September, two black detectives and one Pakistani detective were going door-to-door in Gravesend, Brooklyn, canvassing residents to investigate a possible hate crime. They were dressed in suits, not uniforms, and not one of them is white, so naturally someone assumed they must be pretending to be police officers. The Shomrim Jewish Community patrol raced to the scene, and 911 was called. When the detectives heard the call over the radio they identified themselves to the dispatcher, but a fight almost broke out when local cops arrived. more ›

With the federal authorities continuing their investigation of an alleged terror plot with roots in Denver and Queens, some New York City Muslims have accused the feds and NYPD of racial profiling. Queens Islamic activist Monami Maulik said over the weekend, "An entire community and people and religion should not be profiled and characterized as terrorists because of certain investigations." more ›