Pubdate: 8 Mar 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. Author: Gail Appleson, Law Correspondent N.Y. SUED OVER ALLEGED RACIALLY MOTIVATED SEARCHES NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group of Puerto Ricans and blacks sued New York City's police department Monday, alleging that a special street crimes unit was carrying out a racially motivated stop-and-search policy. The department's Street Crimes Unit has been engulfed in controversy since four of its officers, all of whom are white, fatally shot an unarmed African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, last month. A grand jury in the Bronx is investigating the shooting. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan, was brought by the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights and two African-American men who were searched by police. Defendants in the lawsuit included the city and the police department. The lawsuit asked for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and a court order finding the stop-and-search policy to be unconstitutional. It also asked for class-action status. The city's corporation counsel's office did not have a comment immediate comment on the case. The suit alleged the unit violated the U.S. Constitution by carrying out unreasonable searches and seizures. It also charged that police officers were wrongfully stopping people based on race and national origin. ``The targets of these stops and frisks and searches and seizures are predominantly males of color,'' the suit alleged. The lawsuit described the unit as ``an elite, commando-like, squad of police officers'' who allegedly were required to fulfill a quota of illegal guns seized each month. The suit alleged most of the 380 officers assigned to the unit were white. The lawsuit alleged the unit reported that it stopped 27,0612 people last year, but arrested only 4,647 of them. The plaintiffs said the police department failed to adequately interview, train, evaluate, monitor or discipline members of the unit. They said the department actively encouraged officers with the unit to be ``overly aggressive.'' The suit said an example of this policy can be found on official bulletin boards that carry the slogan ``We own the night.'' The lawsuit said unit members were allowed to wear T-shirts carrying this quote from Ernest Hemingway, ``Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of a man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and like it, never really care for anything else thereafter.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Mike Gogulski