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Stop le Contrôle au Faciès

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A 2009 study showed that stop and frisk in France disproportionately targeted racial minorities, as police were more likely to stop blacks and Arabs. Yet, despite a growing understanding of this discrimination perpetuated by the police, there was no effective method of tracing stop and frisk activity, no legal recourse available for those who had been victims of this racial discrimination, and no political will to address the problem.

Stop le Contrôle au Faciès did just that, by adding the issue to the media’s agenda during a presidential campaign, paving the way for the first class action lawsuit of its kind and encouraging legislators to draft three proposed laws that would require police officers to record these stops, in an effort to collect official data on stop and frisk incidents.