(AllHipHop News) Reverend Al Sharpton, Hip-Hop executive Kevin Liles and a variety of rappers are teaming up to protest the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy.
Rev. Sharpton will lead a silent march from Harlem to Mayor Bloomberg’s house this Father’s Day (June 17).
The purpose of the march is to protest the stop and frisk policy, which Sharpton’s National Action Network says unfairly targets young black and Latino men from the Hip-Hop generation.
“We want to end violence and crime in our communities and support law enforcement, but not in a manner that encourages racial and religious profiling,” said Kevin Liles, former
President of Def Jam and Warner Music Group and supporter of the march.
“Reduction in crime is achievable if we work together with law enforcement to strengthen our communities, and build trust on both sides,” said Liles, who currently runs KWL Enterprises.
In addition to Al Sharpton, Kevin Liles and the National Action Network, the NAACP, members of the clergy, community leaders, students and others will march down 5th Avenue in Manhattan, to demand an end to the stop and frisk policy.
“It is pitiful that our young people are more afraid of the Police when they walk outside, than they are of any potential Gang,” added NAACP Northeast Director Marvin Bing.
“How unfortunate is it that we have to teach our young people how to react and respond when a Police Officer stops and frisk them, and any kind of movement can get them killed. Stop and Frisk must end,” Bing said. “It is no longer a Police crime prevention tactic- its racial harassment, and racial profiling at its core.”
The activists are demanding that NYPD police Commissioner Ray Kelly also denounced this policy, which they claim blatantly targets minority youth.
“We must bring attention to the continued pattern by the NYPD of routinely stopping and searching people of color — especially young black and Latino men (often times without probable cause),” said Tamika D. Mallory, the 32-year-old National Executive Director of National Action Network
“We call on Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg to implement reform at once. By creating databases of people that have been ‘stopped and frisked,’ the NYPD has criminalized an entire generation of racial minorities in this city. We are in a crisis,” Mallory said.
For more information visit http://www.nationalactionnetwork.org.