Pubdate: Sat, 25 Oct 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 PROGRESS ON MARIJUANA ARRESTS

When he ran for mayor, Bill de Blasio condemned police practices 
under which young black and Latino men were unfairly - sometimes 
illegally - charged with possessing tiny amounts of marijuana, 
placing them at risk of losing jobs, access to housing or eligibility 
for military service even though such charges are often dismissed.

His promise to address this problem was supported in minority 
communities that bear the brunt of this destructive policy. But a new 
analysis of state data shows that low-level marijuana arrests during 
the de Blasio administration have continued at roughly the same level 
as under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. That's not what the voters 
signed up for.

Since 1977, state law has barred arrests for possession of trivial 
amounts of the drug unless it is being smoked or displayed in public. 
In 1990, there were fewer than 1,000 such arrests in New York City. 
Yet in 2011, that number had shot up to an astonishing 50,000.

By then it was clear that police officers were illegally charging 
people with "public possession" by tricking them into removing the 
drug from their pockets during constitutionally questionable 
searches. Arrests for this misdemeanor dropped to 28,600 last year - 
still more than any city in the world - after Police Commissioner 
Raymond Kelly ordered officers to follow the law.

Defense lawyers, however, say that defendants who have noncriminal 
amounts of marijuana are still being cuffed and taken to jail by 
officers who purposely seek out concealed amounts of marijuana. This 
week, for example, Jim Dwyer of The Times reviewed a case in which 
the occupants of a car were taken to jail for a marijuana pipe - 
containing only residue - that was allegedly in "public view" when 
cops riffled through the car and found it.

The new analysis of state arrest data on people caught with tiny 
amounts of the drug, by the Marijuana Arrest Research Project and the 
Drug Policy Alliance, shows that between March and August this year, 
during the de Blasio administration, officers made 15,324 misdemeanor 
arrests under the statute that contains the "public view" provision - 
or about 500 more than in the comparable period in 2013, during the 
Bloomberg administration.

Despite the common argument that such arrests take criminals off the 
streets, three-quarters of those arrested had no prior criminal 
conviction. The report notes that the people arrested for marijuana 
possession "are not criminals; they are ordinary high school and 
college students and young workers" who will be saddled with arrest 
records that colleges, employers, landlords, creditors and 
occupational licensing boards can easily find online.

Race drives arrests, with black neighborhoods having arrest rates 
many times those of white neighborhoods with residents of the same 
class and income levels. Moreover, 86 percent of people arrested were 
black or Latino, despite data showing that whites and minorities use 
marijuana at similar rates. The report attributes the racial 
imbalance in arrests to the fact that police officers patrolling 
white neighborhoods typically do not search the vehicles and pockets 
of white citizens, thus allowing them to go about their lives without 
fear of arrest and incarceration.

Mr. de Blasio's team has produced contrived numbers in an 
unpersuasive attempt to prove that the arrest picture is somewhat 
improved. But there's no hiding the fact that New York City is still 
administering unfair police practices that disproportionately 
penalize communities of color and damage the lives of the 
overwhelmingly young people who are targeted. Public anger around 
this issue will continue to grow until Mr. de Blasio changes the very 
ugly status quo.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom