The NYPD was just caught racial profiling yet again. This time, the proof is on video and it’s so extreme, it will make your stomach drop.
Two YouTube pranksters staged an experiment — arguing in front of the same policeman while they were dressed in Western clothes and, then again, twenty minutes later in Muslim clothes. The difference between the officer’s response to the scenarios is stark.
When Adam Saleh and Sheiikh Akbar were dressed in Western city garb and speaking in American accents, the police offer pretended not to see them.
Just twenty minutes later, they wore what they called Muslim “cultural clothes” and spoke with a foreign accent while they argued.
What followed was one really angry officer.
Saleh and Akbar said later, “Too many innocent people get stopped and frisked every day because of what they wear or their skin color.” Their video exposes just how real racial profiling is in New York.
While the comments on the video make it unclear if the NYPD police officer is real or an actor in this one, the issue of racial profiling among the department is still prominent. Recently, a respected Muslim human rights lawyer was targeted while in downtown Manhattan with her family.
Numbers also show that the NYPD has a problem. Between 2004 and 2012, the NYPD stopped 4.4 million people. 80 percent of these were done in violation of the Fourth Amendment and more than half singled out targets based on their race.