Court Stops Unconstitutional Stop & Frisk

Thank goodness for federal judge Shira A. Scheindlin striking down New York's abusive "stop and frisk" law.  That law permitted police to stop and frisk people without probable cause, in clear violation of the 4th and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution.

Worse, New York police were allegedly given minimum quotas of how many people they had to stop and frisk. 

It takes no imagination to figure out that this law was abusively used against people of color.  Among them was plaintiff David Floyd, who was twice stopped and frisked including an afternoon encounter in front of his Bronx home.  Mr. Floyd evidently made the mistake of being black.  Clearly, a black man in the Bronx would arouse police suspicion, right?

Mr. Floyd is also a medical student, which implies he is not a crook.  That only happens after getting a license.

But levity aside, NY's policy was a bad one to which San Francisco has been planning to add its own big wet kiss.  Hopefully this will be a cold shower instead.

We as a nation cannot continue to condemn racial profiling in Arizona while justifying our own codification of race as a crime in itself.  We stand today with David Floyd because, ultimately, every one of us is David Floyd.