US Protest slams NYPD police brutality

US protesters in the racially diverse Bronx section of New York City have held another rally against persisting police brutality and its controversial stop-and-frisk tactics that mainly targets minorities.

Angry Demonstrators from Bronx and across New York marched on Saturday afternoon in a “Stop the Cops” protest rally from the neighborhood to the Harlem section of the major city, predominantly populated by African American residents, who have been the prime target of New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Stop-and-Frisk approach.

The NYPD’s supposed “crime-fighting” tactic has come under widespread criticism as highly discriminatory, singling out mostly African American and Hispanic residents of the largest US city.

This is while merely 12 percent of those stopped and searched by NYPD forces under the Stop-and-Frisk policy have been found guilty of violating the law in some way, according to figures released by local rights groups.

The continuing enforcement of the policy by police officers has raised growing concerns over racial profiling.

The march comes nearly a year after the killing of 18-year-old Bronx resident Ramarley Graham, who was shot by NYPD officers in the bathroom of his own home while unarmed. At about the same time, another African American teenager, Trayvon Martin, was shot and killed in Florida by an armed guard.