A Bronx medical student testified Monday that when a trio of plainclothes cops stopped him outside his godmothers building the excuse they gave was that there had been a pattern of robberies in the area.
But the real reason, 28-year-old David Floyd said, had more to do with the color of his skin.
I felt like I was being told I should not leave my home," said Floyd. First and foremost, I didn't do anything; I am not a criminal.
Floyd is one of four black New Yorkers who have filed a class-action lawsuit against the city that targets the police departments controversial stop-and-frisk tactic.
The NYPD is laying siege to black and Latino neighborhoods, Floyds lawyer Darius Charney charged as the trial got under way Monday.
Thousands, if not millions of New Yorkers have been subjected to a frightening and degrading experience, said Charney, of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Stop-and-frisk is legal, but the way the NYPD has been doing it is arbitrary, unnecessary and unconstitutional," he said.
City lawyers insisted the NYPD is targeting crime not minorities.
Crime drives where police officers go, not race, said Heidi Grossman, an attorney for the city.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2008, seeks to have the NYPDs policy declared unconstitutional and a monitor appointed by the court to keep tabs on how police make stops.
The plaintiffs also want NYPD officers to be required to fill out paperwork each and every time they stop and frisk a person, so they can be tracked. And they are also seeking unspecified compensatory damages.
The trial, which is expected to last over a month, will draw testimony from cops, lawmakers, constitutional experts, and 11 black or bi-racial New York men - and one Hispanic woman - who say they were victimized.
Like Floyd, who is studying medicine in Cuba, the three other plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit are black. They are Lalit Clarkson, 26, and Deon Dennis, 37, both of Harlem, and 20-year-old David Ourlicht, of Jamaica, Queens.
On Monday, now 16-year-old Devin Almonor, the son of a retired cop, described how three years ago he burst into tears when plainclothes police officers cuffed him for no reason.
Why are you crying like a little girl? the cops said, Almonor testified.
Almonor, who is also black, has filed a federal lawsuit separate from Floyds case.
In coming days, lawyers for Floyd and the others are expected to introduce as evidence audiotapes made by a Brooklyn cop named Adrian Schoolcraft.
Schoolcraft claims he was hauled off to a psych ward to discredit his allegations that the 81st Precinct pushed officers to fill arrest quotas.
His former commanding officers are also expected to be put on the stand.
Floyd versus the City of New York does not question the legality of warrantless stops in high-crime areas.
Nor can Manhattan federal court Judge Shira Scheindlin ban stop-and-frisk as a police procedure. But she has the power to order reforms that will directly affect how the NYPD polices the city - from the beat cop on up.
And Scheindlin, who is also hearing two related lawsuits, has already made clear she has some reservations about the stop-and-frisk tactic.
