4:29 pm Feb. 14, 2012
Councilman Jumaane Williams had a blunt response to New York Police Department, which is defending a record-high number of stop-and-frisks of black and Latino on the grounds that those numbers are on par with the racial breakdown of reported criminal suspects.
"Bullshit," Williams said.
He said if police were stopping people based on the racial breakdown of who commits crimes, "We would see young white men being stopped at record rates for marijuana" and "We'd see every white man with a suit" also stopped because "they may be committing a financial crime."
Later, Williams, who was arrested by the police following the West Indian American Labor Day parade earlier this year, predicted that there would be blowback in black and Latino neighborhoods targeted by stop-and-frisk.
"I think the community is bubbling up ... [They] won't be as quiet as they've been and who can blame them?"
