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Blacks Account For 57% of Downtown Stop-And-Frisks, But 3% of Population

By Irene Plagianos | February 5, 2013 6:14pm

LOWER MANHATTAN — Even though African Americans make up just 3.1 percent of the population in Manhattan’s First Precinct, one square mile that includes Lower Manhattan as well as Soho and Hudson Square, blacks accounted for more than half of the area’s Stop-and-Frisks in 2011, an NYPD study released Monday revealed.

57.3 percent of the 3,626 men and women targeted in the precinct under the controversial Stop-And-Frisk policy were black, according to the study.

Whites, who make up 73 percent of the area’s residents, accounted for 18.6 percent of the stops.

Hispanics had a nearly identical stop percentage, with 18.7 percent, but are only 7.3 percent of the population.

Regardless of race, the NYPD cited grand larceny as the main reason for targeting suspects in the area.

Citywide, officers stopped 686,000 New Yorkers in 2011, and more than half were black.

The first precinct did, however, record one of the lower number of stops in the city, though bordering Fifth Precinct, which covers Chinatown and Little Italy, and the Sixth Precinct, which includes Greenwich Village had even less — 3,118 and 2,954 stops, respectively.

Neighboring 9th precinct, which encompasses the East Village and parts of the Lower East side, made 5,367 stops.

The First Precinct did not immediately return a call for comment.