When federal judge Shira A Scheindlin ruled Aug. 12 that the stop-and-frisk tactics of the NYC Police Department were unconstitutional, civil liberties advocates cheered the decision. So, too, did the young men of color – the primary victims of the practice – and their loved ones.



Shorty before the ruling, several 1199SEIU mothers of young men condemned the tactic. “Every time I see the police stop a child, I say to myself, ‘that could have been my child,’” said Angela Mann, a Beth Israel Hospital medical assistant who works in Manhattan and lives in Brooklyn.



“It used to be different when I was growing up,” Mann said. “Young people weren’t stopped for no good reason. My son was stopped in Brooklyn once while he was with his young daughter and once while he was wearing his security guard uniform.”



Mann recalled that her son was also frisked after being stopped in Ocean Hill- Brownsville. At no time during the stops was he arrested or charged with a crime.



In her decision, Judge Sheindlin did not order an end to the practice, but she did call for a federal monitor whose job it would be to oversee broad reforms. All the major Democratic candidates for NYC mayor oppose stop-and-frisk as it is now practiced. But multi-billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg shot back at Judge Scheindlin, accusing her of not understanding how policing works, and he vowed to appeal the ruling.



Paulette Forbes, an imaging technologist at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, is a single mother of two sons and a daughter--all in their 20s. The older son is an attorney and the younger has a master’s degree in social work. The daughter is a first-year medical student.



Forbes is a longtime rank-and-file member of 1199SEIU’s Executive Council and a leader in her church. She recalled closing her eyes while riding recently in the passenger seat of her car, a Mercedes-Benz, while her older son drove home from religious services. Two police officers, with sirens blaring, pulled over the Forbes car.



“I saw the look on my son’s face. He was clearly annoyed, so I intervened,” she recalled. “Obviously, the police officers hadn’t noticed that I was in the car when they decided to stop it. The incident made me feel so sad because I know that I can’t always be with my children. And I realize the situation could escalate.”



Fernanda Stewart, a discharge planner at Brookdale, also is the mother of two young sons. “Both have been profiled,” she said. To help keep him out of trouble, Stewart has placed her younger son in a mentoring program. “I know it’s not a guarantee against his being stopped. I just hope with good supervision and with the grace of God I can help keep him safe.”



Another mother – Sabrina Fulton, mother of slayed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin – also commented on Judge Scheindlin’s decision. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press on Aug. 18, Fulton said, "You can't give people the authority-- whether it's a civilian or police officers--to stop somebody just because of the color of their skin."