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.'' 
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