Another front in the war against stop-and-frisk opened across the Hudson this week in Newark. It reminds us that the damage federal Judge Shira Scheindlin did when she dishonored our police will not be limited to New York if her ruling is allowed to stand.
This new battle was launched by the American Civil Liberties Union — and it comes amid a Newark murder wave. While New York has had the fewest murders in 50 years, the 111 murders in Newark last year was the highest in two decades.
With all these bad guys out there killing people in Newark, naturally the ACLU has found its villain: the Newark Police Department. In a new report, the ACLU complains that while African Americans represent 57 percent of the city’s population, they account for 75 percent of the police stops.
We’ve seen this script before. In New York, the activists used similar numbers to claim the cops were racist. As in Newark, Eric Holder’s Department of Justice intervened on the side of the activists in New York. Ultimately, they found an anti-cop federal judge — Shira Scheindlin — who affirmed the charge in an outrageously biased court decision that declared stop-and-frisk unconstitutional.
The point is, we can already see how this will turn out for Newark, at least unless Scheindlin’s ruling is tossed out and the case reheard. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown Scheindlin’s case back to the federeal district court on the grounds she lacked the appearance of impartiality.
Unfortunately, with Mayor de Blasio making clear the city won’t appeal, the only hope now is if the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association is given standing to appeal Scheindlin’s ruling.
So, good luck to the PBA. The integrity of two police forces is now at stake.