A sweeping set of changes to the New York City Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk program has been put on hold. In August, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin found the program unconstitutional, saying police had relied on a policy of indirect racial profiling that led officers to routinely stop blacks and Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white. While she did not halt the use of stop-and-frisk, Scheindlin appointed a federal court monitor to oversee a series of reforms. The city appealed Scheindlin’s ruling, saying it made officers passive and scared to frisk suspects. On Thursday, it got what it was hoping for, and much more. An appeals court stayed the changes, effectively postponing the operations of the monitor, while allowing police officers to continue using stop-and-frisk tactics. In a striking move, the court also took the unusual step of removing Scheindlin from the case, saying she ran afoul of the judiciary’s code of conduct and compromised the appearance of impartiality surrounding this litigation by granting media interviews while the case was pending before her.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 12:54:47 +0000
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