While Eric Garner’s tragic death in police custody has prompted inquiries into policing and chokeholds, his passing should also compel a broader investigation into the overall state of New York City’s criminal justice system. For the past 20 years, New Yorkers have heard only one note about criminal justice, the city is safer than ever. Nothing was said and no questions were raised about who was arrested, for what, or what happened to them after arrest. Recent revelations, however, sound cause for alarm. Underneath the surface of the ‘safest large city in the world’ patina is a criminal justice system in crisis.
The first sign of trouble appeared over stop-and-frisk. It turned out that blacks and Latinos accounted for almost 90 percent of all stops-and-frisks and only about 10 percent of the stops yielded an arrest or even a ticket. A federal judge ruled that the NYPD had engaged in widespread constitutional violations.
