De Blasio Tries to End Stop-and-Frisk

Is the fight over stop-and-frisk finally over? Bill de Blasio announced last night that he's moving to settle the lawsuits concerning the NYPD's controversial (and racially skewed) practice, which he denounced as "broken and misused." To underline just how radically the city's position had shifted, the newly-minted mayor was flanked by the very people who had filed those lawsuits, the New York Times reports. "We're here today to turn the page on one of the most divisive problems in our city," de Blasio said.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton also used the occasion to accuse predecessor Ray Kelly of pressuring cops to stop and frisk more people, which the Wall Street Journal sees as the strongest indication yet that illegal quotas were in place. "I don't think we can use the term quotas," Bratton said. But they were "being pushed hard to do more." The settlement will essentially implement the reforms ordered in August by a district court judge who found stop-and-frisk unconstitutional. An appeals court struck down that ruling, and is now giving the police union, which is interceding in the case, until Feb. 7 to respond to the proposed settlement. (More stop and frisk stories.)