Lawmaker Says "Stop and Frisk" Program Deliberately Targeted Minorities

NYPD commissioner wanted to create fear of police among blacks and latinos

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly admitted that cops target blacks and Hispanics for the city's controversial "stop and frisk" program to keep guns off the street, a state lawmaker testified this morning.

State Sen. Eric Adams, D-Brooklyn, said Kelly made the startling admission during a July 2010 meeting in Manhattan with then-Gov. David Paterson and other officials.

Adams, a former NYPD captain, said he complained that a "disproportionate" number of blacks and Hispanics were being subjected to the controversial crime-fighting program.

According to Adams, Kelly "stated that he targeted or focused on that group because he wanted to instill fear in them that any time they leave their homes they could be targeted by police."