(From City & State’s Heard Around Town. To read more from City & State click here.

New York City Comptroller Calls for an End to Stop-and-Frisk
City Comptroller John C. Liu released a statement calling for the abolishment of stop-and-frisk tactics by NYPD officers. According to Liu, there were nearly 700,000 instances of New Yorkers being stopped and frisked last year, nearly all of them targeting Black or Latino people innocent of any crime.
“It’s just impossible to say stop-and-frisk is not racial profiling, and continuation of this practice not only violates the department ban against racial profiling, it raises civil rights questions,” Liu said, decrying the tactic. “It also poses a potential financial liability to the city, as evidenced by rising claims against the NYPD and the federal judge’s ruling allowing class-action status in a stop-and-frisk lawsuit.” Supporting Liu’s claim, there were 2,241 civil rights claims filed against NYPD officers in 2011, up 23 percent from 2010.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer spoke in agreement with Liu’s assessment, but applauded Commissioner Ray Kelly’s acknowledgement that greater training and oversight is needed in current stop-and-frisk procedures after the commissioner announced changes to officer training, monitoring, supervision, transparency and accountability. Stringer also spoke in support of the “call-in” approach, a proven tool for reducing violence.

State Senate Passes Resolution to Honor Beastie Boys Founder
Last Tuesday, May 15, the New York State Senate passed a resolution introduced by State Sen. Daniel Squadron honoring Brooklyn native and Beastie Boys founder Adam “MCA” Yauch for his contributions to music and political activism.
Yauch and the Beastie Boys gained prominence in New York City, which is reflected in the resolution. “The Beastie Boys exemplified New York through a period in which grassroots creativity and a community of iconoclastic artists helped redefine and rejuvenate a city on the ropes, with iconic imagery from Brooklyn to Ludlow Street,” reads part of the resolution.

Governor Ends Food Stamp Finger Imaging
Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the end of finger imaging for food stamp recipients. The practice was thought to prevent many hungry New Yorkers from acquiring much-needed food at a time when one-third of New York City’s children live in poverty. Arizona now remains the only state to continue this practice.
“It makes no sense for children to go to bed hungry while we waste local tax dollars on a senseless program that puts food farther out of reach,” State Sen. Daniel Squadron said, applauding the governor’s decision.
The reform also impacts the elderly. “Removing stigma and ensuring dignity in applying for food stamps for the elderly is critical,” said Bobbie Sackman, director of public policy for the Council of Senior Centers and Services.
The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies  also announced its support of the governor’s decision, praising the removal of this “needless hurdle” in a time of economic hardship.

Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot Directed by Adam Yauch

Midway through 2008, something surprising has happened: two films with human dimension and artful expression–Adam Yauch’s Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot and Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness–have flushed the toilet of summer movies. Neither is a special effects extravaganza but they stir emotion by emphasizing the human scale of what movies can show. (See my mid-year round-up below.)
Gunnin’ documents b-ball culture through eight high school basketball prodigies from across the country who participated in the “Elite 24 Hoops Classic.” It took place in 2006 at the street basketball mecca of Harlem’s Rucker Park, on the corner of 155th street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, where stars like Dr. J. and Wilt Chamberlain first began. Reputations (nicknames) and legends are made at Rucker (“It’s where you get tough,” a fan says) and Yauch’s attention to the authentic passion of folk culture makes the movie vibrant. Gunnin’ is everything the fatuous, condescending Hoop Dreams was not.

As in his remarkable Beastie Boys concert film, Awesome: I Fuckin’ Shot That, Yauch elevates video technology with a hands-on, heart-felt, keen-eyed purpose. A b-ball fan who knows what to look for, he also utilizes the medium to catch fantastic moves: he even turns instant-replay into an art form of amazement and commemoration. The fish-eye lens expresses wide-eyed wonderment at New York life, while a witty scan of internet searches paces background info on the players. In Gunnin’, Yauch’s style has the intellectual and emotional rhythm that DePalma failed to achieve in Redacted.

Most docs are still made according to decades-old models but Gunnin’ has hiphop immediacy and this is not just a matter of technology. Yauch’s feeling for youth culture gives him insight into his subject. Imaginary stats cards for each of the players (Jerryd Bayless, [cq] Michael Beasley, Tyreke Evans, Donte Greene, Brandon Jennings, Kevin Love, Kyle Singler and Lance Stephenson) provide an affectionate motif, but Yauch also conveys how these talented kids get marked for success–hunted by NBA scouts, manufacturers, predatory bloggers and girls. The interview segments are terse but reveal the essence of diverse backgrounds, contrasting suburban genes to ghetto pedigrees. It coalesces different styles of American boyhood; these are the warmest, most recognizable gallery of faces since George Washington.

To read the full article at CityArts click here.