Stop-and-Frisk Under Fire

Stop-and-Frisk Under Fire

An aggressive, racially charged stop-and-frisk captured on audio helped raise the debate about the police tactic.

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On June 3, 2011, when two undercover cops performed a stop-and-frisk in Harlem on a teenager named Alvin, the 16-year-old recorded the audio of the entire encounter. On the recording, the police berate Alvin with racially charged language and threaten to arrest him “for being a f**king mutt.”

Appearing on ABC Nightline, filmmakers Erin Schneider and Ross Tuttle talk about hearing the audio and helping Alvin eventually go public with it in a short documentary they produced for TheNation.com.

—Alec Luhn

Watch “The Hunted and the Hated” and hear the full audio recording of Alvin’s stop-and-frisk here.

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