Stop and Frisk: The Obsession of Eric Adams

NYC Mayor Eric Adams has many obsessions that he has brought into office with him. His ego,

naturally. His liking for appointing corrupt officials to public office is also well known. But the

one that really gets his juices flowing, that gets his pupils dilated more than anything else? The

abomination that is “Stop and Frisk.” In December 2021, just prior to taking office, he touted

the idea of re-introducing it to the streets of NYC, a desire that still burns bright within him to

date.

However, given the recent decision of the Supreme Court that it is legal for New Yorkers

to conceal carry a firearm, Adams’ Stop and Frisk fetish is now on very shaky ground.

Stop and Frisk has always been highly contentious, and rightly so. Its most basic logic is

something more so akin to Nazi Germany than 21 st century NYC and America – that people are

potentially guilty of something, but without a sniff of due process. Law enforcement are

allowed to act on their own hunches, grievances and prejudices in doing so.

It’s essentially the

philosophy of “your papers please” and there’s nothing you can do about it for fear of

apprehension. In the rest of the Western world, Stop and Frisk is barely known, let alone

enacted. Yet again another case of American Exceptionalism proving to be exceptionally wrong

and at odds with the rest of Western democracy.

There is though with Stop and Frisk the over-powering stench of racial profiling and blatant

discrimination. The statistics more than back this up:

 Since 2002, over five million New Yorkers have been subject to the ignominy of Stop and

Frisk.

 In 2019, 13,459 New Yorkers were subject to Stop and Frisk. Of those, 9% were White,

while 88% were either Black or Latino.

 Nine out of ten New Yorkers who have been subject to Stop and Frisk have been

innocent.

Source: Stop-and-Frisk Data | New York Civil Liberties Union | ACLU of New York (nyclu.org)

While to the rest of us on Planet Sane, those figures alone should condemn Stop and Frisk to

the trash-can of history without delay. On Planet Not-Quite-So-Sane, where Eric Adams has a

second home, that data is a mere blip of inconvenience and therefore of no concern to him. But

now the Supreme Court has loomed large, and Adams fevered dreams of further subjugating

those he supposedly represents has now taken a serious legal body-blow.

Given that the nation’s supreme legal entity has ruled that carrying a concealed gun in NYC is

constitutionally protected, where does that then leave Stop and Frisk? Your first reaction may

be in a dumpster on fire. And yes, you’d be right. The target of Stop and Frisk is in the

overwhelming number of cases, either drugs or weapons, primarily guns. The Supreme Court’s

ruling effectively neutralizes the weapons part of that equation. And much as Adams might

hate to admit it, his illegitimate NYC fiefdom pales into legal insignificance in the face of the

highest court in the land.