Meek Mill’s Lawsuit Against Philadelphia Police Department

Meek is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for civil rights violations, false imprisonment, invasion of privacy and civil conspiracy.

In the lawsuit, Meek’s attorney makes it clear that this has been a practice of the Philadelphia Police Department and that the stops have been racial in nature, much like the “stop and frisks” in New York City.

“Prior to October 31, 2012, the defendant City of Philadelphia, through the high command of the Philadelphia Police Department, implemented and enforced a policy and practice of stops, frisks, searches and detentions of persons, including plaintiff, without probable cause or reasonable suspicion as required by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1 section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution”

“The stops, frisks, searches and detentions by Philadelphia Police
Department officers are often based on constitutionally impermissible considerations of race and/or national origin in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The victims of such racial and/or national origin profiling are principally African-American and Latino.”