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City officials reject calls to revive 'racist and unconstitutional' stop and frisk policies

By and FOX 29 Staff
Published  July 11, 2022 5:27pm EDT
Philadelphia
FOX 29 Philadelphia

City officials reject calls to revive 'racist and unconstitutional' stop and frisk policies

The increase in gun violence across the city has caused a push to bring back the stop and frisk policy, but city officials say the policy unfairly targets communities of color.

PHILADELPHIA - Growing frustration over spiking gun violence in Philadelphia, and concerns about last week’s shooting at the July 4th celebration, has pushed the controversial practice of stop and frisk back into the conversation.

Stop and frisk is just how it sounds: police stop someone and search for weapons and contraband.

City Council President Darrell Clarke raised the issue last week in a press briefing after two law enforcement officers were wounded just before the start of the July 4th fireworks. 

"There are a lot of citizens in Philadelphia who talk about when are we going to talk about stop and frisk in a constitutionally enacted way," Clarke said.

While Clarke did not endorse the idea of returning to the practice, which critics say unfairly targets communities of color, he did press for a detailed conversation about the stop and frisk policy. 

"That's a conversation we're going to have," said Clarke. "We can’t have an environment where everybody is carrying a gun, an illegal gun." 

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Speaking at his weekly gun violence briefing on Monday, District Attorney Larry Krasner made a distinction between what he calls legal and "illegal stop and frisk." Krasner also argues that illegal stop and frisk is racial profiling.

"We in government should not be encouraging law enforcement to do things that are illegal, that doesn’t make any sense," he said. 

Despite his often stated anger with gun crime, Mayor Kenney also voiced his disagreement with the policy.  

"I don’t think we should be doing that again with young men in our city, randomly stopping them and going through their pockets," Mayor Kenney said. 

Council members Helen Gym, Kendra Brooks and Jamie Gauthier, in a statement, wrote: "We need to be aggressive and courageous in our approach to gun violence prevention, but that doesn’t mean repeating the mistakes of our past."