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| Earl Simpson being arrested at his place of employment for "Trespassing." The store owner installed a camera to document police harassment. The NYPD wants to bring back "Stop and Frisk." |
Since New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio reversed his predecessor's stop-and-frisk policies, civil rights lawyers have had one roadblock left in the way of reform: the police unions.
Lawyers representing several of those unions demonstrated on Wednesday that they would not go down gently.
Attorneys, reporters, activists and other spectators gathered to watch the showdown in a cavernous appellate courtroom and an overflow room where proceedings were transmitted via closed-circuit TV.
One judge on the panel warned that the court would not tolerate disruptions even though "this case attends to issues that excite emotions on all sides."
In two hours of argument, the unions took turns vying for a chance to upend the deal that city attorneys reached in the civil rights case earlier this year.
The city's settlement implements many of the court-ordered reforms that federal judge directed last year in the landmark case of Floyd v. The City of New York, which held the NYPD accountable for racial profiling in conducting street stops.
De Blasio dropped his predecessor Michael Bloomberg's appeal of this ruling earlier this year, and new police commissioner Bill Bratton agreed to make officers submit to the oversight of a court monitor, wear body cameras and document their stops more thoroughly.
A federal judge refused to let the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and other unions intervene in the settlement in July this year.
If the unions lose their appeal, the city and lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights will be able to start carrying out the court order.
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