The Big Apple: Marijuana Arrest Rates Up 29 Percent, Minorities Account For 90 Percent
By Monterey Bud, Marijuana.com
The ebb and flow of marijuana arrests in The Big Apple continue. . .
Purportedly working to lose their “marijuana arrest capital of the world” moniker – and after successfully cutting their weed-related arrests by 75% between 2013 and 2014 – New York’s 2016 marijuana arrest rate shot up by 29% when compared to the first six months of 2015.
Hit particularly hard during this surge of chronic arrests – minorities.
Despite the fact that whites account for almost half the Big Apple’s total population, a little over 90% of those individuals arrested for pot in New York City between January and June of 2016 were minorities, according to fusion.net.
Getty Images
“During a November 2014 press conference, police commissioner William Bratton held up a small plastic baggie filled with pot as Mayor Bill de Blasio stood next to him. Anyone found possessing less than 25 grams of pot—the amount in the bag, shown in the photo at the top of this post—would only get a ticket and wouldn’t be arrested, Bratton said.”
Flogged for his failure to reduce the lopsided marijuana incarcerations between minorities and whites, last week Bratton publicly stated he would step aside as police Commissioner, before the end of this year.
Better late than never, Bratton’s “broken windows” policy encouraged New York City’s police force to attack with righteous indignation any and all “low-level crimes like marijuana possession.”
Failing miserably on his 2014 campaign pledge, Mayor de Blasio advocated the idea of curbing the NYPD’s use of any stop-and-frisk tactics, as a means of helping The Big Apple’s residents avoid a life-altering criminal record for a low-level marijuana offense.
Inhibiting opportunities and crushing dreams of the future, those unfortunate souls with a simple marijuana conviction on their permanent record could potentially face an uphill climb when it comes to obtaining public housing, or simply qualifying for a student loan.
herbwarrior420
I wonder why Rev Sharpton hasn’t been raising cain with the arrests of minorities for cannabis that was made Illegal Illegally by nixon because of his predjudices against Blacks and anti-war hippies in 1970’s. He should be raising hell because of real Predjudgices.