The complaints I got from New York City's poorest neighborhoods, though, were that often officers approached groups of guys standing on a sidewalk. The officer would tell them to disperse, and they would become "agitated." "Why do we have to leave?" It's a good question. I came to learn that there are some communities where people drew suspicion just for hanging out on a stoop or a sidewalk. I saw cases with a familiar constellation of charges: disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and assault on an officer. Together, they were known casually as "P.O.P.," or "Pissing Off Police." There wasn't much we could do in some of these cases. Technically, the offenses described by officers counted as disorderly conduct, which meant the arrest may have been justified.
[For more of this story, written by Monica Potts, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/codes...igator-of-misconduct]
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