“No one should live in fear of being stopped whenever he leaves his home to go about the activities of daily life.”
Those words came from U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin in her fiery 195-page ruling on the NYPD’s “stop-and-frisk” program. After a two-month trial featuring dozens of interviews and statistical analysis of nearly 5 million police stops, Judge Scheindlin concluded what so many already knew: New York City’s stop-and-frisk is an unconstitutional racial profiling program.
Many of us celebrated her decision in Floyd v. City of New York, but this is just one victory in an ongoing fight against racial profiling. Within hours of the decision, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he would appeal the case.
However, there are a number of concrete steps that are being taken to help fight racial profiling.
First, a diverse coalition in New York City is supporting the Community Safety Act (CSA). The CSA is a set of two bills – one would effectively ban racial profiling by the NYPD, while the other would appoint an inspector general to create greater oversight and allow victims of stop-and-frisk to hold police accountable for profiling.
Second, last month members of Congress re-introduced the End Racial Profiling Act of 2013 (ERPA). The bill comprehensively addresses racial profiling by law enforcement on a number of levels: by defining the problem, explicitly banning racial profiling, mandating data collection to better understand the problem, requiring law enforcement training on racial profiling, and holding federal officers accountable.
Finally, a number of NAACP chapters and other grassroots groups have reenergized the fight to end racial profiling on the state and local level. “Trayvon’s Law” provides a legislative basis for laws to ban racial profiling, repeal stand your ground-type laws, and create accountability for law enforcement and community watch groups.
A group of students called the Dream Defenders have taken Trayvon’s Law to heart. For several weeks, they camped out in front of Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s office demanding an end to Stand Your Ground and racial profiling.
Every challenge to stop-and-frisk, racial profiling, and other unjust polices has been the result of a groundswell of grassroots activism and support. We can and must apply the same type of grassroots thinking to the larger battle to end racial profiling across America.
Ben Jealous is the national president/CEO of the NAACP.