New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at a news
conference with New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly last week.
Originally published on Thu August 22, 2013 7:30 pm
New York's City Council has approved a new layer of
oversight for the nation's largest police force, overriding Mayor Michael
Bloomberg weeks after the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics were deemed
"indirect racial profiling" of blacks and Latinos.
NPR's Joel Rose reports that the council voted to override
Bloomberg's veto and pass two police oversight bills: one that would create an
inspector general for the NYPD and another that would make it easier to sue for
racial profiling.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said most individuals
being stopped by the police are not doing anything wrong. "People who were
not arrested. Charged with no crimes. That is a practice that is
unconstitutional and must come to an end," Quinn said.
Joel says Quinn, who is running for mayor, voted for the
bill to create an inspector general overseeing the NYPD but against the second
bill making it easier for individuals to sue for racial profiling.
NAACP President Ben Jealous hailed the vote to approve the
two measures despite the mayor's veto as an important step in ending racial
profiling.
"What happens in NYC has consequences for the
nation," Jealous said. "The policies of the NYPD inspire the policies
and practices of police departments across the nation."
Last week, U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled
that police had been systematically stopping people in the street without any
evidence or reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing in what amounted to racial
profiling.