Minnesota marijuana arrests demonstrate racial bias

[RainDog]

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_25608424/minnesota-blacks-marijuana-arrests-proportionately-higher-report-says

If you're black in Minnesota, you're six times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than your white counterparts, even though drug use rates are similar, according to a report released Monday.

The report by MN2020, which looked at FBI arrest data for 2011, showed that the racial disparity in marijuana possession arrests in Minnesota was more than twice the national average.

"In Minnesota, African Americans made up a little less than six percent of the population, but made up more than 27 percent of marijuana arrests," MN2020 Executive Director Steve Fletcher said at a news conference Monday in front of the Hennepin County government center. "That kind of overrepresentation cannot be accounted for without racial bias. It means black Minnesotans are bearing a disproportionate share of the personal and collateral costs of our war on drugs."

Fletcher and others, including the American Civil Liberties Union, are calling on lawmakers and law enforcement agencies to take a hard look at policies and to end the "structural racism" leading to the disparities, which aren't limited to marijuana arrests.

Previous report by the ACLU indicates racial bias in the war on drugs: Billions of dollars wasted on racially biased arrests

[angstlessk]

1. I think we all know ALL arrests regardless of "crime" are racially motivated

Death penalty is STILL racist....they put to death a few poor and or (sorry for the word) retarded white folk in order to say it ain't racist are LIARS