The statistics, which were also divided by precinct, showed that minorities were even more likely to be stopped in wealthier areas like the Upper East Side. In the 19^th precinct, for instance, 76 percent of stops were minorities, even though only 17 percent of Upper East Side residents are minorities. This disparity has long angered local community leaders.

“It’s become abusive, particularly to minorities in low-crime neighborhoods,” said Assembly Member Michah Kellner. “It says this community is not welcoming of all people, if so many of our black and Latino neighbors are going to be stopped and frisked. Is that them message we really want to send?”

According to Robert Gangi, the director of PROP, the Police Reform Organization Project, people on the street can only be stopped if they look suspicious, or are committing a crime. In addition, police can also stop an individual if they fit the description of a known criminal in the area. Gangi said that although this practice is legal, sometimes police officers go over the top.

“There’s a lot of pressure for police to meet their quotas and in a desperate effort to do so, they will engage in unwarranted or illegal stops,” said Gangi.

According to NYPD statistics, however, not only did stop and frisks increase steadily from over 686,000 in 2011 from 540,000 in 2008, but crime has also steadily decreased. Murders are down 43 percent, and this year, on November 26^th, not a single person was reported stabbed, shot or slashed, according to the NYPD.

Nick Viest, the chair of the 19^th precinct community council said that he supports the NYPD Stop and Frisk policies.

“From what I’ve witnessed, they’ve handled these things very professionally and appropriately,” said Viest. “When you look at these statistics at face value, people get concerned, but they are responding to specific descriptions. They are doing the job necessary to keep the community safe.”

As far as stopping those who fit a certain description, Victor Goode, a professor at the CUNY School of Law, said that he doesn’t quite buy that explanation.

“Let’s say there a report of purse snatching a young African-American male, 14-16 years old,” said Goode. “When the suspect is characterized as broadly as that, it gives them an excuse to stop almost anyone.”

Next month, Darius Charney, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, and his colleagues, will try to challenge the constitutionality of NYPD Stop and Frisk practices like these. However, he did stress that Stop and Frisk is not an illegal police tactic in and of itself.

“Their argument that black and Latino people are more likely to commit crimes is not the best, because these are law abiding folks that are being stopped,” said Charney. “Are you saying that black and Latinos are more likely to look suspicious?”

The trial, “Floyd vs. The City of New York,” a class action lawsuit, is set to begin on March 11^th.

The congressman, whose district encompasses the Upper West Side, said in a statement that too many unstable people have accessed firearms in the country to commit terrible acts.
“If now is not the time to have a serious discussion about gun control and the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our society, I don’t know when is,” he continued. “How many more Columbines and Newtowns must we live through? I am challenging President Obama, the Congress, and the American public to act on our outrage and, finally, do something about this.”

26 people were killed in the elementary school, including 20 children. The shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, also shot his mother in his nearby home before the mass murder, and took his own life in the school.

BROADWAY MALL ASSOCIATION SEEKS DONATIONS
The Broadway Mall Association (BMA), the organization that oversees landscape design and maintenance for the malls along Broadway from West 70th to 168th streets, is seeking private funding for capital improvements.

BMA has secured over $10 million in state and city funds in the past three decades, but now wants to expand its preservation efforts to maintain newly renovated malls at an annual cost of $10,000 per mall.

According to BMA, “If the new malls are to grow in successfully and thrive over time, the BMA will need to advocate as successfully with the private sector as it has with the public.” For more information and to donate, visit BMA’s website at www.broadwaymall.org.

CITY’S CREATIVE ECONOMY GROWING, BUT MINORITIES BEING LEFT BEHIND
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s office released a report last week on the city’s entrepreneurial economy. Titled “Start-Up City: Growing New York’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for All,” the report summarized recent growths in “entrepreneurial” industries like finance, fashion, marketing and technology, but also addressed these fields’ limited accessibility, citing census data that showed only 29 percent of employed Blacks and 20 percent of employed Latinos work in these “creative economies.”

“Too many working-class New Yorkers lack the resources and skills to share in this growth,” Stringer said in a statement, noting that annual salaries for jobs in this new tech economy often start at $65,000, well above the city’s median family income. “We need to turn this engine into a pipeline to the middle class for thousands of New Yorkers.”

To achieve this end, the report recommends increasing office and housing affordability, expanding computer science training in public schools and improving transportation to growing business districts, among other initiatives.

CONGRESS MEMBERS REQUEST POST-SANDY FOOD STAMP RELIEF
Members of Congress including Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler demanded easier access to federal food stamps for New Yorkers still suffering from Hurricane Sandy last week. The members wrote a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg requesting looser eligibility requirements and expanded eligibility zones for the U.S. Department of Agriculture-administered Disaster Supplemental Food Stamp (D-SNAP) program, which provides relief funding to help feed those who were hit hard by the October storm.

“Making it as easy as possible for those affected by Hurricane Sandy to have access to the resources they need to recover will also help our city rebuild,” the congress members wrote. “Allowing survivors better access to relief programs like D-SNAP will mean more people will be able to sign up, which will also translate into more profits for local small businesses such as grocery stores.”
The members noted that many New Yorkers whose homes were damaged by the storm’s extensive flooding were elderly or handicapped, so they would particularly benefit from easier access to the federal benefits.