Set-Up – just to catch attention:
The odds must be 1,000 to 1 against any one person having a suspicious bulge in
their clothing resembling a weapon – justifying a police frisk. Maybe a
lot more: never happened to me and I’m ready to turn 70 (and Irish). That
makes it at least 1,000,000 to 1 against any two persons thrown up against a
wall together being legitimately searched (1,000 X 1,000), 1,000,000,000 to 1
for three, etc.
Offended neighborhoods and groups can draw attention to this mathematical
implausibility by getting school kids especially (the most unlikely targets) as
well as other multiple-molest victims educated how to sound off “a thousand”,
“a million”, “a billion” any time they are tossed. They can stage street
theater near schools instructing kids -- and everybody else – how to sound
off. Make especially good TV in front of New York City Hall.
The Sting – the end of stop-and-frisk:
This stop-and-frisk eighth-grade math should then be combined with the
exclusionary rule: the US Supreme Court decision that illegally obtained
evidence must be thrown out. If cops know in advance that anything they
happen across in their unconstitutional meanderings will not be admissible --
that when they get to court the defense will simply scream that the odds are at
least a billion to one against the stop-and-frisk having been legitimate – then
cops will no longer be in such a hurry to roust multiple parties at once.
The eighth-grade math works just as nicely for a single person who gets stopped
multiple times. Police keep a searchable record of all stops. If
victim of repeated stops keeps a record of all his dates, times, places and
police names and numbers, then, he can use police records to provide the same
dismissal of evidence formula.
Don’t forget to scream out in court that 7X as many stops-and-frisks (by 2011)
were instigated after crime dropped 4X (before Bloomberg) = 28X as many
stops-and-frisks per reported crime: case dismissed!
