Republican Senator from Louisiana John Kennedy told Fox News that New York City should bring back 'Stop and Frisk,' after the latest shooting in Manhattan.
Senator Kennedy says we have an idiot problem and not a gun problem, so how do we fix him?
"The other thing that, frankly, New York's going to have to face is the issue of whether we should bring back more aggressive stop-and-frisk, which is a perfectly legal law enforcement tactic, blessed by the Supreme Court, that de Blasio got rid of," Sen. Kennedy said.
First, no data supports the idea that S&F stops crime.
What it does do is anger communities.
In Washington, DC, only about one percent of stops between 2022 and 2023 resulted in the seizure of a gun. In New York City in 2008, that number was less than 0.2 percent. Conducting unnecessary stops that are highly unlikely to yield contraband both erodes trust in police and wastes public money.
How exactly would Stop and Frisk have prevented Monday's shooting, Sen. Kennedy?
Just to refresh Foghorn Leghorn's memory, stop-and-frisk is only valid if police have a reasonable expectation that the person they are going to pat down committed a crime or was about to commit a crime.
In other words, you can't do stop and frisk to racial profile people. Rudy Giuliani used stop-and-frisk to demonize black and brown communities in New York City that had drug issues. Does Sen. Kennedy want New York City police to pat down every person that gets off the train in Grand Central Station?
This is another attempt by the MAGA cult to give law enforcement unfettered and unregulated power over the public, and make-believe wingnut thuggery solves problems. It doesn't..
In reality NYC crime is was way down in 2024, compared to Sen. Kennedy's state, which saw a huge increase in crime and is ranked fifth in the nation.
In 2024, New York City reported a decrease in overall crime, with a reduction of 3,662 crimes compared to the previous year. Louisiana, on the other hand, had a high violent crime rate, ranking fifth among states with a rate of 548 offenses per 100,000 people, according to USAFacts.
