Stop, Question and Frisk

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Stop, Question and Frisk

April 8, 2014 12:32:00 pm

Stop, Question and Frisk is a proactive policing program, in which police officers use personal discretion in detaining individuals based on suspicion of felonious behavior. Recent claims of prejudice raised against the New York City Police Department are rooted in substantive law passed during the Civil Rights Era. Supporters of the policy often claim that it is a social deterrent of crime because it increases societal awareness of law enforcement. However, controversies arose during the Civil Rights Movement under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, based mostly on racial and socio-economic profiling. Renewed claims of prejudicial enforcement sounded again in the late nineties race cases, and again in the early 2000s when the New York City Police Department increased enforcement in low-income neighborhoods. The New York Police Department’s policy was a focal point in last year’s mayoral election and a major lawsuit.

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.

UN Drug Trafficking Convention signed

On December 20, 1988, the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was signed in Vienna, Austria. The treaty provides mechanisms for international coordination in preventing the manufacture and distribution of drugs worldwide. Over 170 countries have signed the treaty to date.