New Data Shows NYPD Continued Racially-Biased, Illegal Marijuana Arrest Crusade in 2011

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New Data Shows NYPD Continued Racially-Biased, Illegal Marijuana Arrest Crusade in 2011 -- Despite Commissioner's Order


Despite the internal memo NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly sent in September, advising police to follow the law and stop making bogus pot arrests, new data shows the NYPD arrested more than 50,000 people for minor pot offenses in 2011, breaking city records for petty pet arrests in the past decade.

The new numbers, compiled by the Drug Policy Alliance and Queens College sociologist Harry Levine, add outrage to what was already an infuriating situation: Kelly's memo was a response to widespread allegations that police were illegally charging and arresting people -- mostly black and Latino -- for misdemeanor marijuana possession. In New York, holding small amounts of marijuana is decriminalized until it is burning or in public view, at which point it becomes an arrestable, finger-printable offense that threatens student loan and public housing accessibility.

More New Yorkers have been arrested for petty pot charges in the past five years than from 1978-2001, doubtfully because more people are walking around outside, lighting up. Instead, it seems the NYPD is using stop-and-frisk to find pot in people's pockets. Once cops pull it out, they charge and arrest people as if the weed was always in public view. This important discrepancy was the target of Kelly's clearly ineffectively memo.

Making matters worse is that both stop-and-frisk and pot arrests target young members of low-income, black and Latino communities: Roughly 85% of stop-and-frisks, as well as pot arrests, are for people of color. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/770229/new_data_shows_nypd_continued_racially-biased%2C_illegal_marijuana_arrest_crusade_in_2011_--_despite_commissioner%27s_order/

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