Paris appeals court finds discriminatory police tactics violated minorities’ rights, reversing lower court’s decision

• The court ruled that in five of the 13 cases on appeal, police carried out discriminatory “stop-and-frisk” ID checks that resulted in no legal action against the individuals, all of Arab or African descent.
• In addition to awarding damages to the plaintiffs, the ruling also requires police to record and distribute the objective grounds on which stops are initiated, as the ID checks have been difficult to file complaints over because they have not been recorded.
• Of concern to legal and community observers is that the other eight cases were found to be legal because the checks took place in areas where behavior deemed suspicious by police is more likely to indicate illegal activity, i.e. in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

“We struck at the heart of the system by attacking the state. … This is a big victory for our clients. But it’s also a big victory for everyone, notably young people, black or North African, who each day are controlled (by police) mainly because of the color of their skin.”

Read the full story from AP at Yahoo! News.

(Image Credit: Francois Mori/AP, via Yahoo! News)