(New York Times) Outside a music club on Greenwich Street in SoHo, the bouncers smoke joints as they check in the arriving customers. A young graphic artist routinely strolls through Chelsea, joint in hand. And when a publicist calls her supplier to order pot, she uses code words — a studio, a one- or two-bedroom — to signal how much she wants.
But the SoHo bouncers and the Chelsea graphic artist don’t have much to worry about, at least from the police: they are white. Even though surveys show they are part of the demographic group that makes the heaviest use of pot, white people in New York are the least likely to be arrested for it.
Last year, black New Yorkers were seven times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession and no more serious crime. Latinos were four times more likely.
In 2008, the police made more pot arrests “than in the 12 years of Mayor Koch, plus the four years of Mayor Dinkins, plus the first two years of Mayor Giuliani,” [according to Queens College Professor Harry Levine, who has studied the racial disparity in marijuana arrests.] “In other words, in one year, 2008, Bloomberg made more pot arrests than in 18 years of Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani combined.”
Mr. Bloomberg’s chief criminal justice aide, John Feinblatt, declined to discuss the city’s approach to marijuana arrests, or the findings of the study. But through a spokesman, he issued a statement maintaining the pot arrests have helped drive down violent crime.
“Marijuana arrests — which rarely lead to jail — are concentrated in neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of violent crime because that’s where the police focus their attention in order to reduce victimization,” Mr. Feinblatt said. “This continued focus on low-level offending has been part of the city’s effective crime-reduction strategy, which has resulted in a 35 percent decrease in crime since 2001.”
In effect, Mr. Feinblatt was arguing a variation on the “broken-windows” theory of crime-fighting — that cracking down on symptoms of public disorder helps head off more serious problems.
So in other words, a black guy smoking a joint in Harlem is a symptom of larger public disorder, but a white girl smoking a joint in Chelsea is a symptom of a fun night on the town.
This “broken windows” theory doesn’t make any sense at all. The idea is that if you let low-level offenses slide, people in the community feel a sense of lawlessness and disregard for the neighborhood, so higher-level crimes begin to flourish. I can see that making sense when we’re talking about graffiti and loitering and actual broken windows, but not with adults smoking pot. If the pot smoking is a crime symptom, then why don’t we get the same kind of crime stats in Chelsea as we do Harlem? We surely don’t see the same level of graffiti, loitering, and broken windows in Chelsea, do we?
We all know how smoking a joint mellows a person out. Who’s to say that the crime stats in Harlem are worse because we’re motivating young people to use alcohol in place of cannabis so they won’t get picked up by Bloomberg’s NYPD? We certainly know that once that young person is arrested for pot smoking, he or she gets a black mark on his or her record that makes finding employment more difficult, a task that is already difficult for urban young people of color. High rates of unemployment contribute more to public disorder and crime than any marijuana cigarette could.
What this is really about is getting the fingerprints and booking information from as many young blacks and Latinos as possible. It harkens back to President Nixon’s infamous quote, as told to Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman, according to Halderman’s diaries, “You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to.”
Topics: African-Americans, blacks, Latinos, New York, New York City, New York Times, race, racial disparity
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[...] With great regret and chagrin to report, CBS has rejected a contract deal with NORML to place a pro-cannabis law reform advertisement on the biggest electronic billboard in Times Square (The CBS ‘Super Screen’ at 42nd St) claiming that the advertisement is too political. NORML had a contract for the 15 second spot below on the giant billboard (and a second one featuring President Obama and New York City’s high cannabis arrest rate with its shocking racial disparity in enforcement). [...]
[...] With great regret and chagrin to report, CBS has rejected a contract deal with NORML to place a pro-cannabis law reform advertisement on the biggest electronic billboard in Times Square (The CBS ‘Super Screen’ at 42nd St) claiming that the advertisement is too political. NORML had a contract for the 15 second spot below on the giant billboard (and a second one featuring President Obama and New York City’s high cannabis arrest rate with its shocking racial disparity in enforcement). [...]
I live in Brooklyn and have gone through this AFTER 1994. So, I TOTALLY agree with what he is saying in this article. Cops would focus on certain areas and in order to fill their quota for the day they would issue as many tickets and arrests as possible. White people have connections that we don’t have. when WE buy it, it’s in the street or out of some house. The cops, usually from white neighborhoods, would RIGHT OFF THE BAT treat us like criminals…………..even if it was only a $5 nckel bag we got caught with.
Refreshing to hear it put so honestly. Wish everyone could be so conscious.
[...] With great regret and chagrin to report, CBS has rejected a contract deal with NORML to place a pro-cannabis law reform advertisement on the biggest electronic billboard in Times Square (The CBS ‘Super Screen’ at 42nd St) claiming that the advertisement is too political. NORML had a contract for the 15 second spot below on the giant billboard (and a second one featuring President Obama and New York City’s high cannabis arrest rate with its shocking racial disparity in enforcement). [...]
Russ, I gotta disagree with this. NYC has had an over 75% reduction in homicides since they elected Giuliani in ’93 (took office in ’94). The city used to be a dirty, menacing, dangerous place.
I think a lot of stuff gets thrown together in “fixing broken windows.” For instance, they arrest people for things like skipping turnstiles, tagging subway cars, noise violations, and drinking in public now.
Honestly, I think that people should be able to walk in the street with joint just as easily as they walk around smoking a Marlboro. (Only the menthol, not the MJ, can kill you.) And people ought to be able to sell MJ brownies just as easily as they can sell a Long Island Iced Tea (with a license to those over twenty-one). AND, OBVIOUSLY, NO ONE SHOULD BE TARGETED FOR BEING THE WRONG COLOR.
But, honestly, there’s an inescapable question about what qualifies as “a broken window.” Laws against marijuana target a totally non-violent act of commerce and the healthful herb associated with it.
But as for fighting small fires before the forest is ablaze (not in a good way), I’m down with that too.
No, I think we agree. The policing of low-level crime in NYC does seem to have made the city a better place. I’m just saying marijuana smoking shouldn’t be one of those low-level crimes. Yes, bust the turnstile jumpers, the subway taggers, the noise violations, and the public drunkenness – those are crimes. I’m even OK with busting people smoking pot in public (fine only, of course).
[...] New York City: Whites smoke pot, but Blacks are arrested for it [...]