(Crain’s) — The arrest of a black city councilman and top aide to the public advocate after the West Indian Day Parade yesterday has renewed criticism of the Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which critics say has given cover for police to inappropriately target otherwise law-abiding minorities. The outcry, on display at a City Hall press conference Tuesday morning that was attended by more than a dozen high-ranking state and city officials, stems from a Monday incident when police briefly handcuffed and detained Brooklyn City Councilman Jumaane Williams and the public advocate’s director of public affairs, Kirsten John Foy. The conflict came at the tail end of a particularly violent weekend that saw nearly three dozen shootings, several fatalities and the wounding of two police officers. Police maintained a heightened presence and state of alert Monday around the parade site near Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
