Pubdate: Thu, 15 May 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298

NO SLOWDOWN IN UNFAIR MARIJUANA ARRESTS

When Mayor Bill de Blasio took office in January, community groups 
and juvenile justice advocates hoped that his administration would 
significantly decrease the numbers of black and Latino young people 
who are unfairly - and in some cases, illegally - arrested and 
dragged through the court system for possession of tiny amounts of 
marijuana. But a new analysis of state arrest data by a nonprofit 
called the Marijuana Arrest Research Project, which studies police 
policy, suggests that the de Blasio administration is on track to 
equal the more than 28,600 low-level marijuana arrests that were made 
under Michael Bloomberg in 2013. The administration needs to review 
Police Department policy to make sure these arrests are necessary and 
being fairly made.

The State Legislature tried to correct the problem in 1977, when it 
barred the police from arresting people for tiny amounts of marijuana 
unless the drug was publicly displayed.

The number of minor arrests declined immediately after the law was 
passed but rose sharply from fewer than 1,000 in 1990 to 50,000 in 
2011. Research has repeatedly shown that whites and minorities use 
the drug at similar rates, yet more than 80 percent of those arrested 
are black or Latino. And even though most cases are eventually 
dismissed, the arrests exact a cost: Young people who are even 
temporarily entangled in the courts can be shut out of jobs or denied 
entry into the armed services.

As the number of arrests skyrocketed, defense attorneys made the case 
that police officers were illegally charging suspects with "public 
possession" after directing them to reveal the drug or removing it 
from their pockets during constitutionally questionable searches. 
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly tacitly acknowledged that problem 
in 2011, ordering officers to follow the 1977 law. The numbers of 
arrests declined significantly. The 28,600 arrests made last year may 
seem low compared with the number in 2011.

The police have historically implied that marijuana arrests help get 
criminals off the street.

But a majority of these low-level arrests end in an "adjournment in 
contemplation of dismissal," which means that the charges go away if 
the person stays out of trouble for six months or a year, or in a 
plea to a violation, which is a noncriminal disposition. (These cases 
waste scarce court resources and distract prosecutors from working on 
serious crime.) Moreover, a 2012 study by Human Rights Watch found 
that only about 3 percent of people arrested for low-level marijuana 
possession subsequently committed even one violent felony.

The new state data for the city shows a slight decline in arrests for 
the first quarter of this year, which can partly be explained by 
harsh weather that kept people indoors.

But the 2,657 arrests in March exceed the number of arrests made in 
March 2013. Moreover, as in previous years, there were few arrests in 
affluent white areas, and those arrested were mostly black and Latino 
young men in heavily minority neighborhoods. Mr. de Blasio's team has 
thus far demonstrated no concern about the marijuana arrest problem.

But the extreme racial disparities in the arrest statistics alone 
make it imperative that the city look more closely into what is happening here.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom