Lets Stop and Frisk Justin Beiber

The Rockefeller Drug Laws enacted in the 70's helped muster the political will, and embedded the otherization and zero tolerance mentalities required to maintain the current Stop and Frisk laws in New York. Indeed, black and brown citizens there had to be first stripped of their citizenry (like the pushers) in order to render them appropriate targets for police. 

Who has rights, and who has the right to suspend those rights? How did we get to a place in society where we permit people to be stopped on the street,  only 3% of whom are actually doing something illegal? 

I believe many of these answers lie with Rockefeller's systematic disregard for the lives of black and brown people in New York, and his desperate grasping at a "solution" to a crime. 

White, middle class folks never think of their sons or daughters as pushers, in need of frisking. When they do conceptualize them as addicts, they are the medicalized, patient sort in need of careful observation and a clam, supportive environment in which to recover. 

There is a dual narrative of personal responsibility here, one we've seen clearly outlined in Justin Beiber's recent arrest. White kids just got mixed up with the wrong crowd, where as inner city youth of color could have made the choice of abstinence, made the choice to stay away from gang activity. It would be very hard to say there was a direct inverse relationship, but does degree of personal responsibility increase as claim to citizenship decreases? 

Lets think about this: with less guaranteed citizenship, one has to prove a lot more to neighbors, teachers, and police. Patriotism and loyalty to the state (and its laws) have to constantly be re-inscribed with invasions of the body and private space and time. Once one stop and  frisk is preformed, there is no guarantee that that act of exoneration will last even until the next street over, for there is no lasting proof or signature of innocence. 

The irony, which I'm sure has not been lost on this crowd, is that Justin Beiber is not a citizen of this country, unlike the countless victims of invasive stop and frisk procedures, and yet his chances of being deported or facing any meaningful retribution are slim to none.  Maybe he defies the linear relationship between papers and personal responsibility? 

In conclusion, FRISK BEIBER.