Pubdate: Fri, 01 Aug 2014
Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Spokesman-Review
Contact:  http://www.spokesman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417
Author: Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times

POT SMOKING TICKETS ISSUED UNEVENLY

SEATTLE - Yes, you can buy pot. You can smoke pot. You can possess pot
here in the Evergreen State. You just can't do those things in public,
smelling up parks and annoying pedestrians. If you're caught, the
police will write you a ticket.

Especially if you're black. Or homeless. And have the bad judgment to
light up in the downtown core. And the bad luck to come upon one
police officer in particular.

City Hall has been in a state of uproar since the first set of arrest
statistics was released after the legalization of marijuana.

 From Jan. 1 to June 30, officers wrote 82 tickets to people consuming
marijuana in public, according to the Seattle Police Department
report, which was published last week.

The first analysis showed that 37 percent of all tickets were issued
to African-Americans, an ethnic group that makes up only 8 percent of
Seattle's population.

Nearly 50 percent went to men and women who listed homeless shelters,
transitional housing and even a vacant lot as their address.

Needless to say, elected officials in this progressive outpost were
appalled by the racial and socioeconomic disparity.

And then Chief Kathleen O'Toole, Seattle's new top cop, weighed in
with even more alarming information.

"When reviewing data captured for this report, SPD staff discovered
that approximately 80 percent of marijuana tickets were issued by one
officer," O'Toole wrote on the department's website Wednesday evening,
saying that the officer's actions have been reported to the Office of
Professional Accountability and are under investigation.

City officials will not name the officer, who has been reassigned and
is off patrol duty during the investigation. But the Seattle Times,
citing unnamed sources, identified him as Randy Jokela, who has been
with the department since 1990.

Not only did Jokela allegedly write 80 percent of the tickets for pot
infractions, he also added snarky personal comments to some of the
citations, O'Toole said.

"Some notes requested the attention of City Attorney Peter Holmes and
were addressed to 'Petey Holmes,' " O'Toole wrote. "In another
instance, the officer indicated he flipped a coin when contemplating
which subject to cite. In another note, the officer refers to
Washington's voter-enacted changes to marijuana laws as 'silly.' "

Holmes was a sponsor of Initiative 502, passed by voters in 2012
legalizing marijuana, and he pushed for public consumption to be an
infraction under city law.

"This isn't about fining people; it's about getting people to stop
smoking marijuana in public, especially in crowded areas and places
where families and children congregate," Holmes said in a statement
Thursday.

"At the same time, City Council wisely recognized that even civil
infractions can be issued in a racially disproportionate manner, much
like the War on Drugs itself," Holmes said.

"That is why we have a reporting requirement to receive early
indicators of any disproportionate enforcement."

Holmes, whose office would not confirm the officer's identity, said
that he would leave it to the Police Department to "sort out the facts
about the officer's conduct."

But he decried the "disproportionality" of the citations and the fact
that most were issued in the city's downtown.

"I support enforcing the law," Holmes said.

"I support warning people before ticketing them and only issuing a
ticket if the warning doesn't work, and I support spreading
enforcement efforts equitably across the city."

[sidebar]

State Seeks to Avoid Ruling That Pot Law Is Pre-Empted

OLYMPIA - Washington wants to join legal battles between some
potential pot businesses and cities that won't let them open inside
their boundaries.

But Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the state won't side strictly
with one side or the other. It hopes to argue that cities have the
right to ban such businesses under state law, even if they have
licenses from the state Liquor Control Board, but cities can't use the
excuse that marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Legal challenges have been filed to city ordinances in Wenatchee and
Fife that ban marijuana businesses.

"We will oppose any argument that federal law preempts Initiative
502," Ferguson said, referring to the 2012 ballot measure that
legalized recreational marijuana use for adults.

A court ruling that federal law pre-empts state law that establishes a
system to produce, sell and use recreational marijuana could affect
other cities where marijuana businesses are allowed, Ferguson said.
That could "undermine the will of the voters," he said.

The attorney general can ask to intervene in cases filed by other
entities in an effort to protect the voters' interests.

If a court agrees, the state would be able to file motions, appear at
hearings and make arguments. A hearing in the challenge to the Fife
ban is set for Aug. 29.

- - Jim Camden
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt