Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

New York Post Again Targets Chicago Violence in Stop-and-Frisk Debate

By Jen Sabella | August 14, 2013 9:12am
 The  New York Post  once again targeted Chicago violence on its front page Wednesday, speaking to Nathaniel Pendleton (right), the father of slain Chicago honor student Hadiya Pendleton.
The New York Post once again targeted Chicago violence on its front page Wednesday, speaking to Nathaniel Pendleton (right), the father of slain Chicago honor student Hadiya Pendleton.
View Full Caption
Facebook/DNAinfo

CHICAGO — As New York residents, cops and lawmakers debate the effectiveness and legality of the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk policy, the New York Post has decided to make Chicago's murder rate the center of attention.

On Wednesday, the front page of the tabloid read "Chi Kind of Town: Windy City warns NY of no-frisk gun wave," and its top story included interviews with the families of Chicago murder victims Hadiya Pendleton, 15, and Heaven Sutton, 7.

“Can you sleep at night if someone gets shot because a cop couldn’t search someone they know has a gun?” Pendleton's father asked the paper, slamming a New York judge's decision to stop the police practice.

New York cops told the Post Tuesday that ending stop-and-frisk, which allowed police to pat down and search people on the street, will send crime "soaring to levels found in blighted cities like Chicago and Detroit."

The Chicago Police Department fired back, touting a decreasing crime rate.

"In Chicago, we've had significantly less crime, significantly fewer shootings and fewer murders of any year since 1965," Chicago Police Department spokesman Adam Collins said. "And we've done that without imposing on the rights of residents."

Chicago's top cop, Supt. Garry McCarthy, also cited "unwarranted perceptions" about Chicago crime, and said the main issue facing city law enforcement is lax gun laws, not the ability to stop and search suspects.

A New York judge on Monday ruled that the city's stop-and-frisk policy violated the constitutional rights of New Yorkers. Black and Hispanic men made up the majority of those searched, and 88 percent of those stopped and frisked were released without charges.

A 2012 analysis by DNAinfo New York showed that stop-and-frisk did little to reduce shootings in the city.

"If you have a flat-line situation with shootings, and the stops are this high, you are throwing everyone up against the wall and you are losing the community, then you have to reassess," a former top NYPD official said at the time.