Boston Herald laments police inability to collect pot fines or lock up tokers
Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 10:20 am | By: Radical Russ
Thumbing their noses at the state’s lax new pot law, Bay State stoners are brazenly lighting up in front of cops and then refusing to pay fines – leading some frustrated police chiefs to all but give up the fight.
Local police report widespread defiance of the six-month-old law, and a Herald review shows a vast majority of potheads cited by cops blowing off their $100 fines.
All told, a staggering 83 percent of 415 tokers cited in Boston since the law took effect in January have refused to pony up the $100, a Herald review shows.
In Braintree, 15 of 28 citations went unpaid, while in Brookline 26 of 33 blew off the fines.
Somerville Deputy Chief Paul Upton said his officers are now writing few if any citations, in part because enforcing the law costs more money than it’s worth.
“If we send an officer to court, it’s going to cost us $250,” Upton said. “We’re not getting a lot of (citations) written.”
Meanwhile, in Braintree on Monday night, police spotted a suspected perv smoking pot in a car filled with coils of rope, a pair of handcuffs and bottles of NyQuil. But they had to let the man go, even though he was awaiting trial on child sexual assault charges.
Said Deputy Chief Russell Jenkins, “Had the law not been changed, he absolutely would have been placed under arrest.”
The Boston Herald since Day One has been opposed to the decriminalization measure in Massachusetts that was supported by almost 2 out of 3 voters. The reason people supported Question 2 in the first place was that they felt police in the Bay State had better things to do than to haul pot smokers in front of a judge at $250 worth of an officer’s time per pop.
In the penultimate graf, we get a ridiculous and offensive implication about marijuana and pedophilia – have they been reading John English in Boston? First of all, let’s suppose the “suspected perv” (nice journalistic integrity there) had been sitting in his car smoking a cigarette. The police would have nothing to bust him for, as possession of rope, handcuffs, and NyQuil, even for those accused of (not proven to be) child molesters. Is it really Chief Jenkins and the Herald’s assertion that the only way he can keep Braintree safe from child molesters is if they choose to smoke pot in public and he has the right to lock them up for it? Does he really mean that nationwide, 872,721 marijuana smokers per year have to have their lives ruined so we can catch the four or five suspected-but-not-proven child molesters in that group?
As for this “toothless” decriminalization, are the people of Massachusetts upset about this? Do they feel they’ve been duped, thinking they’d reap $100 for every pothead caught, and are now gnashing their teeth over all the stoners who are getting off scot-free? The Herald asked about this in their online poll:
Is the $100 fine for smoking pot a good idea?
7% – Yes, give it a chance to work
3% – No, double the fine
19% – No, go back to it being an arrestable offense
70% – Just legalize pot and save us all the troubleTotal Votes: 3,477
I was talking to my dad about this when it was pased and he told me that they could write the fine but you dont have to pay for it, there is no law saying you have to pay it.
I live in Boston. Since the law passed, what’s happened, as near as I can tell, is…nothing.
That is: no increase in violent crime, no increase in theft, no increase car accidents, etc.
THAT’S why The Herald is making stuff up. The Herald is a great newspaper for taking real news and making it sensational. And when there’s no real news to sensationalize, they just tell really salacious lies.
C’mon Herald, it’s time to raise your ethical standards off the floor!
There are some crazy law enforcement lobbies in Mass we are having to contend with. Some of our local representatives appear to be sponsoring bills that have obviously been written by those with law enforcement interests. I’m still looking every day for news on any of the July 14th mess regarding question 2.
My local rep is completely in the pocket of the law enforcement lobby and is sponsoring some of the most insane law proposals I’ve seen in a while. Smola is calling for 2 years mandatory for any kid caught with marijuana in a school zone. I wrote and asked him why he thought jailing kids for 2 years was good for their future and his reply was just to ask me for my home address. You know that is coming from the lobby that wants to fill cages with humans for money.
I don’t think he runs opposed, either, so he has no reason to not just do whatever the police lobby tells him to.
“Meanwhile, in Braintree on Monday night, police spotted a suspected perv smoking pot in a car filled with coils of rope, a pair of handcuffs and bottles of NyQuil. But they had to let the man go, even though he was awaiting trial on child sexual assault charges.”
This is just made up, if the “suspected perv” who had already been arrested for child sexual assault charges and was awaiting trial had a car filled with coils of rope, a pair of handcuffs and bottles of NyQuil is enough for police to charge with conspiracy to commit child sexual assault.
Why do these idiots think that other people are idiots too
because they’re idiots.