Saturday, May 26, 2007

Unlawful Assembly in New York City

From Bob Herbert's column in the New York Times this morning:
No one is paying much attention, but parts of New York City are like a police state for young men, women and children who happen to be black or Hispanic. They are routinely stopped, searched, harassed, intimidated, humiliated and, in many cases, arrested for no good reason.

[...]

Leana Matia, an 18-year-old student at John Jay College, was one of those taken into custody. “We were walking toward the train station to take the L train when all these cops just swooped in on us,” she said. “They cursed us out and pushed the guys. And then they handcuffed us. We kept asking, ‘What are you doing?’”

Where do young blacks and Hispanics go in NYC to get the necessary permits to freely move about in public?

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