blacks have been arrested on low-level marijuana charges at eight times the rate of whites in new york city during the last three years. latinos have been arrested five times the rates of whites for the same charges.
a senior police official attributes racial disparities to more frequent police complaints about marijuana from residents of predominantly black and brown neighborhoods. people in poor neighborhoods sometimes make marijuana-related police calls because they're less likely to have a building superintendent, co-op board or responsive landlord to field their grievances.
still, among neighborhoods where residents made similar rates of marijuana police calls, the police made arrests at higher rates in areas with black and brown people. new york city's marijuana possession arrests have declined to half of their level under the previous mayor, yet there are still 17,000 such arrests each year.
mayor bill de blasio announced the police would overhaul their marijuana enforcement policy within 30 days to "end unnecessary arrests." the district attorneys of brooklyn and manhattan are considering plans to stop prosecuting the vast majority of people arrested on low-level marijuana charges. police commissioner james o'neill says he will convene a working group to review marijuana enforcement tactics.
i am
- mark j. tuggle
- harlem, usa
- same-gender-loving contemporary descendant of enslaved africans. community activist, feminist, health educator, independent filmmaker, mentor, playwright, poet & spiritual being. featured at, in & on africana.com, afrikan poetry theatre, angel herald, bejata dot com, bet tonight with tavis smiley, blacklight online, black noir, brooklyn moon cafe, gmhc's barbershop, klmo-fm, lgbt community services center, longmoor productions, nuyorican poets cafe, our corner, poz, pulse, rolling out new york, rush arts gallery, saint veronica's church, schomburg center for research in black culture, sexplorations, the citizen, the new york times, the soundz bar, the trenton times, the village voice, upn news, uzuri, venus, vibe, wbai-fm, wnyc-fm & wqht-fm. volunteered with adodi, bailey house, inc., black men's xchange-new york, colorofchange.org, drug policy alliance, east harlem tutorial program, imagenation film & music festival, presente.org, save darfur coalition, the enough project, the osborne association, the sledge group & your black world. worked on films with maurice jamal & heather murphy. writing student of phil bertelsen & ed bullins. mjt975@msn.com.
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