TheAgitator.com
“You Bet I Did, and I Enjoyed It, and I’ll Slap Cuffs on Anyone Who Enjoyed It as Much as I Did.”
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008New York City, home to admitted pot smoker (and pot enjoyer) Mayor Michael Bloomberg leads the world in marijuana arrests. Over 370,000 in the last decade for the lowest possible level marijuana offense. More than half were black, despite the fact that just 25 percent of the city is black, and that according to survey data, a higher percentage of white people actually use the drug.
The New York City ACLU says the discrepancy comes from the fact that minorities are much more likely than whites to be stopped and frisked. The end result is a much higher percentage of blacks than whites with a pot-related arrest record–and all that comes with that (including the loss of ever getting federal loans to go to college)–even though white people are more likely to actually use the drug.
More here.
If proportionately more blacks and other minorities make up the low-level pushers than whites, then one would expect to find more arrested even without evidence of prejudiced enforcement behavior by police. While I think that the NYCLU might be correct, I also think that most of those who I encounter on the street who reek of pot or who whisper “smokes” (or similar) from the shadows of office buildings are black.
Strict enforcement is not the answer unless one just wants full jails. Legalization, regulation, taxation and education are needed, just as with alcohol.
chsw
What if I didn’t enjoy it as much as he did? Still arrested, I presume…
Recent reports say similar things are happening in Seattle… Despite an initiative that puts pot possession enforcement at the lowest priority for police officers, the percentage of blacks arrested and prosecuted for that offense rose in comparison to whites.
Story here:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/346395_marijuana08.html
I know everything today is to be reduced to procedural considerations of either the law as it is practiced today or Constitutional authority (the law as it should be), but I just to mention the morality of this issue for a moment. Here you have a man who has used an illegal drug, enjoyed it, and it did not destroy him or lead him to more “dangerous” illegality. He is now mayor who (by inviting the police chief over for lunch) can greatly influence what crimes are given more or less attention by the limited resources of the police force. And apparently he’s ok with over 100 arrests a day on minor marijuana possession; where the state initiates force (no one’s ox is gored by having pot in your possession, but force is certainly required to bring people in for processing), people’s freedom is taken from them, imposing time and financial burdens to appease the system (and time can never be given back). A definite and irrefutable net drain on society, from the standpoint of peaceful interaction with others, never mind the financial drain on both the “criminals” and the state who processes them. How many lives have been damaged - if not outright ruined - by his (in)action? How much wealth has been squandered in playing the never ending game of cat and stoner mouse?
Can anyone honestly tell me that Bloomberg is less evil than the Austrian man who kept his daughter in his cellar for 24 years? Can anyone convince me that any politician/civil servant, in an actual position of authority to (if not change the law immediately) determine how laws are to be enforced, and who does not put political crimes (no victim) at the bottom of the list of things to care about, is not a moral criminal who would and should be shunned and ostracized in a just society? After Nuremberg, should whoever uses the excuse of “just following orders” be condemned as a monster?
Maybe something I ate for lunch is disagreeing with me, but I just don’t understand how this horrific policy, committed numerous times a day on real human beings, can be shrugged off as just the price you pay for living in society. Oh well.
Not for nothing, but of all the major party candidates for President, there’s only one who was serious about major drug reform. And some so-called libertarians got the vapors when 20 year old newsletters associated with his name touched on certain topics - similar to topics which were touched on by a certain ex-pastor just a couple days ago.
Go Obama!!!!
“Do as I say, not as I did.” What a fucking pig.