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The Hunted and the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy

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    (Police Sirens)
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    You look very suspicious.
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    Cause you are always looking at me crazy.
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    (Music Playing)
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    (Altercation Occurring)
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    That is exactly how some (explicit) will go down.
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    Just like that.
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    Just like that.
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    People do not like the police because of the harassment.
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    And what civilians do not understand, is that the police department is like forcing us...
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    ...to do these unreasonable stops.
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    Or, you are going to get penalized.
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    I think the mayor is absolutely correct.
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    Some people are just very hurt by it, and upset, when they are stopped unnecessarily.
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    Well I understand that.
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    Some people...
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    You know you're taking away, at the very least, you are taking away people's time.
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    So I understand, that people may not be happy with it.
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    But I can also assure you, that I go to the communities, communities of color,...
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    ...people want more.
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    They want more stop and frisks?
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    Absolutely.
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    I had this captain who walked into the precinct, and he gave a speech about harassing the public.
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    His words were...
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    We are going to go out there and violate some rights.
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    We hear it from the captain down.
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    We want 250s.
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    This is stop, question, and frisk.
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    (phone ringing)
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    I was walking home from my girlfriends house, and a cop car went passed me.
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    A couple of seconds later I heard the car turn around.
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    And, they just popped out.
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    They all just jumped out of the car.
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    I decided to record it because I was getting stopped a lot.
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    I didn't have evidence of cops being disrespectful and everything.
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    So I pressed the button, and it records the whole thing.
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    Yo I just got stopped like two blocks ago.
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    Cause you are always looking at me crazy.
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    That's our job my man.
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    Listen to me. Listen to me.
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    Because you keep doing that (explicit) man. We stopped you last time.
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    (altercation occurring)
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    Why you touching me for?
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    He was holding me.
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    He was going through my pockets.
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    Going up and down.
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    He was going through my sweater.
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    Than that's when he told me to keep my hands on my head.
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    So I was like this the whole time.
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    For what?
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    Shut your (explicit) mouth kid.
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    Why am I getting arrested for?
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    (yelling) Shut your mouth!
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    He decided to take my hands, from here, and put it behind my back.
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    Like that.
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    (yelling) Shut you (explicit) mouth!
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    I was..
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    (yelling)
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    You're going to break my arm?
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    For what?
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    Who is your father?
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    He is not going to answer he doesn't got a phone.
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    He is a traffic cop?
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    Figures.
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    (recording playing)
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    While they holding me...
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    The sergeant is holding me like this.
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    He like, I'm going to break your arm.
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    I'm like..I'm like, you're going to break my arm?
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    Yeah and I am going to punch you in the face.
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    Are you going to punch my in my face?
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    He is like yeah, and then I am going to arrest you.
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    I'm like, arrest me for what?
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    He is like, for being a mutt.
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    So he grabbed me, by my book bag, and started pushing me down.
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    So I am going backwards down a hill, and he just kept pushing me and pushing me.
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    It looked like he was going to hit me.
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    I felt like they were trying to make me resist, so they could fight me back.
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    (recording playing)
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    I am mad just hearing that thing.
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    How may words could really describe that.
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    It's just disturbing.
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    But, that is exactly what is happening.
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    Like, I can relate to what he is doing.
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    Cause I know that situation.
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    They just don't got no respect for us.
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    And they wonder why we don't have respect for them.
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    For them to just call him names like that like...
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    That is just crazy.
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    Do you think, that during stops, that some police officers try to provoke,...
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    ..so that they can justify arrests?
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    Of course they do.
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    A lot of police officers they try to set civilians off.
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    Then once they start talking, start cursing, they can lock them off for anything.
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    There were two minorities leaning against the wall.
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    They weren't doing anything.
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    My sergeant ordered me to write them blocking pedestrian traffic.
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    If you are a certain ethnicity, standing on the corner,...
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    ...lieutenants, sergeants, have no problem searching you, violating your rights, and racial profiling.
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    There was one statement, that the sergeant said, about what he used to do.
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    He used to stop a guy walking down the street...
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    ...with baggy pants, his underwear hanging out, and he'd just stop him.
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    I know he is probably up to nothing, but I just stop him anyway to give him a 250.
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    It's this one cop.
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    That everybody is the neighborhood knows.
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    I was like three times already.
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    He was like, "Now come here".
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    So they got out the car.
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    They threw my friend on the car.
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    I'm still walking.
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    He spun me around and punched me in my stomach.
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    He started just patting us down.
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    He just left us there.
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    What we are trying to do is, is make certain that it is done as professionally as possible.
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    That the proper respect is shown and done according to the law.
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    This goes all the way up.
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    All the way up to the commissioners office.
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    I'd say even the mayors office.
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    Where they are trying to be proactive.
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    Hey look, we are stopping people and getting drugs and guns off the streets.
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    But think about the 600,000 people that were stopped last year.
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    Only 1%, of those that were stopped, were carrying weapons.
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    The NYPD controversial Stop and Frisk policy...
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    Last year your police officer stopped and interrogated people nearly 686,000 times.
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    Today, that a lawsuit raises serious questions about quotas, racial profiling, and constitutional rights.
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    The public isn't aware of what's happening, but everything is being look at as far as numbers.
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    It's a numbers game.
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    Ok.
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    What did you get last year?
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    Well, you have to match it, and give me more this year.
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    They're trying to keep all of this stuff quiet.
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    So this is my proof, that they are putting pressure on me to write summonses.
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    Commanders are trying to be proactive, or show that they are being proactive.
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    Here you have a system where people are told to get those numbers,...
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    ... to where they should to be, and you will get your promotion.
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    The commanding officer wants to become a deputy inspector.
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    The executive officer wants to become a commanding officer.
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    If you do well, by keeping the arrests up and the summonses up,...
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    ...you will be promoted to the next rank.
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    So, they put pressure on the police officers to generate numbers and arrests.
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    I mean, lets be real, it is a quota.
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    Nobody wants to call it that.
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    But, that is what it is.
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    They can call it a performance objective.
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    They call it a goal that can mask it.
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    However they want.
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    It's a quota, and it does exist.
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    Some of us, under the stress, make them up.
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    Some of us, under the stress, stop innocent people and search them.
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    They are sending units out there that will run around and stop everybody.
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    What happens to the officer if they don't do what the police department told to do?
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    As far as quotas, they will come after you.
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    Come after you meaning transfers. Giving you low evaluations.
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    They give you unwanted assignments.
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    Put you in a post which is very dangerous.
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    High crime
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    By yourself.
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    In a corner.
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    This is a form of retaliation.
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    Basically a change of tours.
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    Put you on the midnight.
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    They make you look bad on paperwork.
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    That paperwork will trail you for the rest of your police career.
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    And knowing that your livelihood is at stake, you meet the quota.
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    It does create this feeling, of hey listen, I got to get my numbers.
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    When you put that pressure on the officer, this us versus them mentality does exist.
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    When I came into this police department, I wanted to help people.
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    But the civilian population they are being hunted.
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    Instead of being protected by us, they're being hunted.
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    We're being hated.
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    The police department is pushing the new guys to be bounty hunters.
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    I use that word because that is exactly what it is.
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    They're hunting.
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    There's a lot of officers, who are fed up, and want to do something about it.
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    And, they're people who are scared.
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    There's a lot of officers that would like to tell their story.
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    But, nobody wants to hear the truth.
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    Nobody wants to hear the bad.
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    You need police, but the police department needs to change things.
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    At one point, I did want to be a cop.
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    To help people, and mostly just be like able to wear a badge, and uniform, and be proud of it.
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    Now I feel like i'm not sure.
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    Cause they're not there to help people anymore.
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    They are just there to like stop and humiliate them.
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    Make them feel bad.
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    There is no excuses for the way they treated me.
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    This one individual was thinking about doing NYPD.
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    The first thing I told him is, "Definitely not."
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    This job, racial profiles, will force you to do things that you don't want to do.
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    We're supposed to be the best in the world.
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    We're the best at making money, and we are the best at arresting, and summonsing, everybody.
Title:
The Hunted and the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy
Description:

A secret audio recording of a stop-and-frisk in action sheds unprecedented light on a practice that has put the city's young people of color in the NYPD's crosshairs. Read the full story at: http://www.thenation.com/article/170413/stopped-and-frisked-being-fking-mutt-video

Directed by Ross Tuttle
Produced by Ross Tuttle, Erin Schneider, Stephen Maing
Camera by Ross Tuttle, Stephen Maing
Editing by Stephen Maing, Carla Ruff

==============

Captions by: The Radical Access Mapping Project, on Un-ceded Coast Salish Territories, 2013
http://radicalaccessiblecommunities.wordpress.com/subtitled-videos/
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Video Language:
English
Team:
Captions Requested
Duration:
13:15

English subtitles

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