New York Cops Now Required To Explain Why They’re Fondling You Against The Hood Of Your Car

New York City police are now required to hand over 3 x 5 inch cards to those they frisk. The informational cards aim to explain the sort of behavior the cops are going after when they stop a potential perp.

An officer can “stop, question and possibly frisk” people if he or she “reasonably suspects that a person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a felony or a Penal Law misdemeanor,” the 3-by-5-inch card says.

In case people might argue that this is a little vague, the card helpfully contains a list of certain things a police might see that would lead him or her to place their hands all up on your booty, including ”sights or sounds suggestive of criminal activity.” Like… yelling? Running? Being Latino?

As it turns out, of the 531,159 New Yorkers stopped by the NYPD in 2008, 51% were black, 32% were Latinos and 88% were completely innocent. And, in a recent survey conducted among Latinos in the South, nearly half of those surveyed reported knowing someone who had been treated unfairly by local police.

It’s often been argued by civil rights groups that the department’s “stop and frisk” policy is little more than a synonym for racial profiling against black people and/or Latinos. And at least one New Yorker isn’t convinced that handing out cards will change this:

“I think that’s ridiculous,” said Davonne Henry, 16, a 10th-grader who lives in Harlem. “It’s not really changing nothing. Like we want the card?”

At least now, if you are among the 88% of frisked people who are innocent, you have a souvenir to take home.

FINEST’S ‘FRISKY’ BIZ CARD [NY Post]