'Scars of Stop and Frisk': Documentary Exposes NYPD Procedure

New York Times sheds light on controversial tactic

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, the NYPD stopped and frisked people 685,724 times in 2011 alone. Our math tells us that just over 1,800 a day.

Eighty-seven percent of those searches involved blacks or Latinos, many of them young men. Hoping to shed light on the NYPD's controversial Stop and Frisk tactics, the New York Times has created a short documentary called "The Scars of Stop and Frisk."

The doc follows Tyquan Brehon of Brooklyn, who claims that he was stopped and frisked at least 60 times before he turned 18 years old.

[Also Read: 'Stop & Frisk Watch' App Helps New Yorkers Check the NYPD]

NYT reports: 

On several occasions, merely because he asked why he had been stopped, he was handcuffed, placed in a cell and detained for hours before being released without charges. These experiences were scarring; Mr. Brehon did whatever he could to avoid the police, often feeling as if he were a prisoner in his home.

His fear of the police also set back his education. At one high school he attended, he recoiled at the heavy presence of armed officers and school security agents. “I would do stuff that would get me suspended so I could be, like, completely away from the cops,” he recalled. He would arrive late, cut classes and refuse to wear the school uniform. Eventually, he was expelled.

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