The news website Fusion.net published an investigative report regarding the Miami Gardens, Florida police department have conducted stop and frisk detainments of over half of the city’s population. The police have targeted the elderly and children as young as five for being labeled as a suspicious.
According to the report, since 2008 over 65,328 stop and frisk detainments have been made out of a city population of 110,754. The overwhelming majority of these stops were done on black residents. The site goes on to make startling statistics and quotes from current and former officers within the police department. Over 8,489 kids and 1,775 senior citizens were subject to the city’s stop and frisk policy. The article goes on to state that “Two officers from the MGPD told Fusion that high-ranking department officials gave them orders to ‘bring in the numbers’ by conducting stops and arrests. One officer said he was ordered to stop all black males between 15 and 30 years of age.”
In one instance that received national attention, store clerk Earl Sampson was stopped and frisked over 181 times by the police department. These stop and frisks were done at his place of employment even at the objection of the store owner. Despite the pleas from the owner and Sampson, police deemed him suspicious and often conducted these actions when customers were in the store and he was working.
Out of these stops, Sampson was arrested 111 times with 71 of these arrests being made for trespassing at his place of employment. This clear case of alleged police misconduct has resulted in a Federal civil rights lawsuit being filed by the store’s owner against the Miami Gardens Police Department.
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