Pubdate: Thu, 13 Jun 2013
Source: Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
Copyright: 2013 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/about/feedback/
Website: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/339

POT-ENTIAL BIAS

Why Do Cops Arrest More Blacks Than Whites for Possession?

AN EXPLOSIVE report by the American Civil Liberties Union about the 
racial disparity in marijuana arrests in the United States 
essentially confirms a new category of crime: smoking weed while black.

The report, released last week, said that while whites and blacks use 
marijuana in roughly the same amounts, blacks are almost four times 
more likely to be arrested for possession than whites. The disparity 
is even worse in Pennsylvania, where African-Americans are more than 
five times more likely to be arrested than whites. That puts 
Pennsylvania among the country's worst offenders in racial disparity 
in marijuana-possession arrest rates.

While marijuana use is undergoing a revolutionary change in 
acceptability, with a majority of Americans now favoring 
decriminalization, prosecution has dramatically veered in the 
opposite direction - with enormous consequences for African-Americans.

According to the ACLU report, marijuana arrests now account for more 
than half of all drug arrests in the United States, and nearly 90 
percent of those arrests were for simple possession. In 2010, 
according to the report, there were 300,000 more marijuana arrests 
than for all violent crimes.

The cost of this futile "War on Drugs" is enormous, and not just in 
millions of misspent taxpayer dollars. The report cites the 
"collateral consequences" of a prison record for marijuana: 
ineligibility for public housing and student financial aid; few 
prospects for employment; potential loss of child custody and 
immigration rights; and a criminal record that often leads to more 
severe sentences in the case of another arrest.

These circumstances can consign hundreds of thousands of individuals 
to marginal lives with little hope of regaining a foothold in 
mainstream society - all for possessing marijuana.

The report reinforces the thesis of the best-selling book, The New

Jim Crow, in which author Michelle Alexander claims that the racially 
perpetrated "War on Drugs" has relegated ordinary African-Americans 
to a racial underclass. This new caste, she says, is denied many 
fundamental rights that seemingly were won in the civil-rights 
struggle - such as the right to vote, since felons in many states are 
banned from participating in elections.

The proposition that blacks are subject to unequal enforcement of 
drug laws isn't universally accepted, of course. Some law-enforcement 
officials and politicians claim that blacks are arrested more often 
because they commit crime more often. It's also true that some people 
dismiss anything reported by the ACLU as leftwing ideology designed 
to promote an agenda - in this case, to decriminalize marijuana.

But consider this: In 2010, in Philadelphia, 82 percent of 
individuals arrested for possession of marijuana were black. Does 
that make sense in a city with so many college campuses filled with 
white students? Or is it the result of policies such as "stop and 
frisk" in minority neighborhoods that inevitably snare drug users?

We'll leave the discussion about legalizing marijuana for another 
day. But the methodically compiled statistics in the ACLU report are 
too jarring to ignore.

No matter how you feel about decriminalizing marijuana, there's no 
justification for implementing the law in such a way that makes it 
illegal to smoke while black.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom