Talk about priorities.
DETAILS: Puff Puff Pass! Mayor Bloomberg To Decriminalize Marijuana In NYC!
A new report reveals that the New York Police Department spent 1 million hours making 440,000 arrests for low-level marijuana possession charges over the last decade.
The report, prepared by Dr. Harry Levine, Professor of Sociology at Queens College, also shows that between 2002 and 2012, the people arrested by NYPD for marijuana possession have spent 5,000,000 hours in police custody over the last decade.
The Drug Policy Alliance and the Marijuana Arrest Research Project, pro-drug law reform groups that commissioned the report, said its findings show a “huge waste” of police resources.
“We cannot afford to continue arresting tens of thousands of youth every year for low-level marijuana possession,” Alfredo Carrasquillo, a civil rights organizer with the activist group VOCAL-NY, said in a release. “We can’t afford it in terms of the negative effect it has on the future prospects of our youth and we can’t afford in terms of police hours.”
Numerous other reports have exposed the array of problems associated with marijuana arrests in New York. They include the following:
- – New York City has made more marijuana possession arrests under Mayor Michael Bloomberg than under mayors Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani combined.
- – Nearly 70% of those arrested for marijuana are younger than 30 years old, and over 50% are under 21 years old. These young people receive a permanent criminal arrest record which can be easily found on the internet by employers, banks, schools, landlords, and others.
- – These arrests are costing New Yorkers more than $75 million per year, and over $650 million during Mayor Bloomberg’s tenure.
- – Even though young whites use marijuana at higher rates, over 85% of the people arrested and jailed for marijuana possession are black and Latino.
The drug reform proposal from Gov. Andrew Cuomo (with support from Mayor Bloomberg) would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in public view. But this change does not change the law itself and will not stop the arrests, which has prompted legislative leaders in Albany to decide whether to pass a bill reforming drug laws.
“For years, New Yorkers from across the state have organized and marched and rallied, demanding an end to these outrageous arrests. And now we learn that the police have squandered one million hours to make racially biased, costly, and unlawful marijuana possession arrests. This is scandalous,” said Gabriel Sayegh, New York State Director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “I’m sure we can all think of more effective things for the police to spend their time on — imagine if NYPD committed one million hours to working with communities to stop gun violence or to pursue unsolved serious crimes. We stand with the Caucus and other leaders in Albany – both Democrats and Republicans – in demanding reform. The hour of change is upon us, and reform is long, long overdue.”
The NYPD has yet to respond to these numbers, but it’s clear that there needs to be some refocus in the department!
SOURCE: DrugPolicy.org
