It's OK to Smoke Marijuana - So Long As You're Not Black or Latino

[carrotfire]

[align=center]A plague of over-policing has swept up

Blacks and Hispanics and sent them to jail

for misdemeanor marijuana offenses at rates

far greater than those of whites,

even though whites use more marijuana

per capita than Blacks and Hispanics

Why is it that poor Blacks and Latinos have to miss work,

lose jobs, miss school, be away from their families,

pay fines, do community service, sometimes get criminal records,

spend a day or night (or both) in jail,

for possessing marijuana, yet middle-

and upper-class whites throughout the city

smoke marijuana routinely, or carry it on the street,

or have it home delivered, and never face the same consequences?[/align]

Most whites are not even concerned with such consequences, since they never face them.

If the police patrolled Columbia University and NYU the way they patrolled the South Bronx (i.e., stopping people on a whim, unconstitutionally searching them, sending undercover officers to perform marijuana transactions, etc.), they would fill the Manhattan jails so quickly that the system would screech to a halt.

But that is not going to happen. White college students can continue behaving exactly as their Black and Latino counterparts in other neighborhoods, breaking the same laws, as they sit back laughing at silly movies while eating Doritos

Yet throughout the city poor people of color sit in roach-infested jails for hours waiting for a lawyer to get them out of jail, even if it means paying a hefty fine, or cleaning the subway, or receiving a lifelong criminal record.

There is only one reason why the police under-enforce marijuana laws at Columbia University, where marijuana possession and use is abundant, such that the marijuana arrest rate is one of the lowest in the city, and over-enforce the same laws in adjacent communities like West Harlem:

The former is predominantly white and well-off, the latter is overwhelmingly minority and poor. Talk about two Americas.

Racism & Drugs

With the NYPD facing difficult challenges such as combating terrorism and stopping the flow of illegal handguns into the city, what are the police arresting people for at a rate ten times greater than before 1997?

But they aren't arresting everyone who possesses marijuana; only poor people of color. When confronted with statistics demonstrating the grossly disproportionate arrest rates of African Americans, often conservatives are quick to respond that African Americans commit more crimes.

But then how would they explain the epidemic of marijuana arrests in New York City over the past ten years, a plague of over-policing that has swept up poor people of color, sending Blacks and Hispanics to jail for misdemeanor marijuana offenses at rates far greater than those of whites, even though, according to the U.S. government, whites use more marijuana per capita than Blacks and Hispanics?

If you don't think such arrests ever happen, you might be surprised to learn that in the last ten years, New York City has arrested more people for marijuana than any city, not just in New York State, not just in the Northeast, not just in America, but in the entire world.

How would conservatives respond to Professor Harry Levine's testimony in May 2007 before the New York State Assembly Committees on Codes and on Corrections (regarding proposed legislation to expand the DNA databank by requiring anyone convicted of a misdemeanor marijuana offense to give a DNA sample)? Marijuana.

For two years. Professor Levine has researched marijuana arrests and convictions in New York City. Here is some of what he found:

Between 1997 and 2006, 360,000 people were arrested and jailed for marijuana offenses in NYC, ten times more than had been arrested the decade previous.

That means 100 people a day in NYC are handcuffed and thrown in jail, where they sit, for at least 24 hours, sometimes 36, sometimes 48, waiting to appear before a judge to answer for their "crime".

To figure out who is getting arrested most frequently for marijuana offenses, you might just figure out who possesses and uses marijuana most often, right?

Among high school students and young adults, for instance, a higher percentage of white people use marijuana than Blacks and Hispanics.

Since the majority of those arrested in NYC are between the ages of 16 and 26, it follows that whites must be bearing the brunt of NYPD's marijuana arrest mania, right? Wrong.

In fact, 85% are Black and Latino (55% and 30%, respectively), 15% are white.

Put another way, for every 100,000 whites, 124 were arrested. For every 100,000 Hispanics, 430 were arrested. For every 100,000 Blacks, 975 were arrested. So blacks were arrested at eight times the rate of whites.

Even without the statistics, does that sound representative of the percentage of marijuana users in this city if categorized by race?

Does anyone think that blacks possess marijuana at eight times the rates of whites? If so, then you haven't been into white homes across New York City, from the two-bedroom apartments on the Upper West Side to West Village lofts to parties in Chelsea to Williamsburg walk-ups to Park Slope brownstones to residences in Astoria and Jackson Heights.

And yet, the NYPD arrest blacks at a rate more than double the percentage of their overall population in every borough other than the Bronx.

Are people arrested moving pounds of marijuana across state lines?

Hardly. Most of those arrested were not event smoking in public; rather, they were in possession of a few grams or a small plastic bag the size of a quarter, or simply standing near someone in possession.

As a public defender, it was inevitable that in any given 8-hour arraignment shift, I would encounter a pile of marijuana cases.

All misdemeanors, all for possessing a bag, or maybe two bags, or for smoking a marijuana cigarette, and all those arrested Black and Latino.

Why is it that poor Blacks and Latinos have to miss work, lose jobs, miss school, be away from their families, pay fines, do community service, sometimes get criminal records, spend a day or night (or both) in jail, for possessing marijuana, yet middle- and upper-class whites throughout the city smoke marijuana routinely, or carry it on the street, or have it home delivered, and never face the same consequences?

Most whites are not even concerned with such consequences, since they never face them. If the police patrolled Columbia University and NYU the way they patrolled the South Bronx (i.e., stopping people on a whim, unconstitutionally searching them, sending undercover officers to perform marijuana transactions, etc.), they would fill the Manhattan jails so quickly that the system would screech to a halt.

But that is not going to happen. White college students can continue behaving exactly as their Black and Latino counterparts in other neighborhoods, breaking the same laws, as they sit back laughing at silly movies while eating Doritos.

Yet throughout the city poor people of color sit in roach-infested jails for hours waiting for a lawyer to get them out of jail, even if it means paying a hefty fine, or cleaning the subway, or receiving a lifelong criminal record.

There is only one reason why the police under-enforce marijuana laws at Columbia University, where marijuana possession and use is abundant, such that the marijuana arrest rate is one of the lowest in the city, and over-enforce the same laws in adjacent communities like West Harlem:

The former is predominantly white and well-off, the latter is overwhelmingly minority and poor. Talk about two Americas.

Why does NYC have such an outlandish and discriminatory policy regarding marijuana arrests?

Professor Levine notes that with so little media coverage on the issue, and silence from the NYPD and the Mayor's Office, it is difficult to pinpoint the reason. But here are a few of Professor Levine's educated guesses:

1) Marijuana arrests are generally easy, clean, and safe.

2) Police officers are underpaid, and marijuana arrests are a way to build overtime hours, hence increase their pay (not to mention increase their chances for promotion). This also helps supervisors build overtime hours.

3) Marijuana arrests are an easy way for the NYPD to gather information on young people of color in poor neighborhoods, as each arrest involves the acquisition of pedigree information, fingerprints, photographs, etc.

Regardless of the twisted purposes behind such policies, marijuana arrests are so common in certain communities that they have simply become part of everyday life, and almost everyone involved, from the police to the residents to the judges to the lawyers, are so accustomed to them that they hardly take notice.

Where is the outrage? How can I, at one moment, be staring at a jail cell full of young Black and Latino men arrested for marijuana possession, and in the next moment, after a short subway ride, be at a predominantly white dinner party where marijuana (among many other things) is being delivered, possessed, and used with impunity?

My solution is not to increase arrests of all marijuana possessors and users (although arrests en mass of white college students would be the quickest way to grab the attention of wealthy and influential white people and spell the policy's quick demise).

Rather, the police and the Mayor should shift their money, resources, and tactical priorities to more serious matters, such as violent crime, domestic violence, gun selling, and terrorism, for example, and leave poor people of color alone on the marijuana issue.

As it is today, one has to wonder, what on earth are the police and the Mayor smoking?


It's OK to Smoke Marijuana - So Long As You're Not Black or Latino [edstrong.blog-city.com]

carrotfire Reviewed by carrotfire on 10-06-2007. It's OK to Smoke Marijuana - So Long As You're Not Black or Latino A plague of over-policing has swept up Blacks and Hispanics and sent them to jail for misdemeanor marijuana offenses at rates far greater than those of whites, even though whites use more marijuana Rating: 5

[Kenn]

I found the best thing abt this thread is the girl tokin it up.:jointsmile:

[FUNKNUGGET]

^ I strongly agree... who the fuck is that?

[killerweed420]

Don't disagree with you.But I've known some honkeys that have been busted for both misdemeanor and felony possesion of pot.Pot is the issue not rascism.Lets just all work together and get it legalized.
The other thing all races need to do is register for jury duty. If you set on a drug case where it looks like rascism is involved just say not guilty. Nothing wrong with voting your conscience in a jury box.

[KingsBlend420]

Yea, it's a bummer. There are probably bigger and worse drug deals going down in brooklyn as compared to the NYU and manhattan area. This isn't being racist, I've lived in NYC and I know what shit happens. Manhattan is full of undercover cops as well. Ever been to Washington Square Park? Again, it is a bummer, but you can't blame the users. Toking does unite.

[birdgirl73]

Pot is the issue not racism. Let's just all work together and get it legalized.

Pot may be the subject here, but racism is rampant in our law enforcement and legal system. Blacks and Latinos are arrested and prosecuted at a much higher rates than whites for all sorts of crimes, not just cannabis. Sentences are much steeper for people of color, too, and qualified legal representation is harder for them to obtain. It's appalling and unfair, and more people need to be aware of these facts. True justice in this country is much more within reach of wealthy white people, sadly, and it ought not to be that way.

The other thing all races need to do is register for jury duty. If you set on a drug case where it looks like racism is involved just say not guilty. Nothing wrong with voting your conscience in a jury box.

Everyone needs to register to vote. If you're registered to vote and/or licensed to drive in the United States, those are the systems from which juries are summoned. People don't generally "register" for jury duty; they register to vote, or for a drivers' license, or they are listed on a tax roll. Courts in nearly all jurisdictions summon potential jurors from those groups.

It's fine to "vote one's conscience" during political elections, but jurors are tasked with something else entirely: listening to judges' instructions and seeing that justice is served by determining innocence or guilt. The much more appropriate time to make strong feelings about racial bias known while serving on a jury is during the voir dire.

[silkyblue]

So the Latino crowd is pissed off coz were here token it up, huh?


come in to my home and tell me Im wrong for smokin pot? walk in my shoes!

Ive seen a few families yes white folks 'familys Destroyed' because of hick town ideas that 'pot smoker's are 'evil people' we are 'not EVIL'!
I knew a family that got pulled/jerked, out of bed at 5AM by the hic town DEA in this area .THE COPS BUSTED the front door in with a long pipe, KIDS IN THE HOUSE asleep in their beds, the parents 'sold weed' to make ends meet. Now tell me what 'white folk' asked for that treatment? what about the dammage done to them children?
I knew a whole family destroyed, they lost eveything including a home thats been in ' the family for over 100 years, acres of land taken by the government all for growing and selling pot! To keep the farm, the family struggled for so long to keep their own land now its gone,


over pot!!
paleezzee!!!!

legalize it!



ps

Is that Paris suckn on a blunt?

<>< <>< <>< <><

[TOOL9]

ps

Is that Paris suckn on a blunt?

<>< <>< <>< <><

Yes it is.

[killerweed420]

I believe rascism has become I minority in the US. Are there still rascists out there? Absolutely and there always will be.I think you would find there are a lot of white people that come forward when they see rascism first hand. I've seen my fair share of reverse rascism too. You just consider the source and move on.

[weedmant]

thats fucked up!