Pubdate: Sun, 16 Jun 2013
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2013 The New York Times Company
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298

RACIALLY BIASED ARRESTS FOR POT

Researchers have long known that African-Americans are more likely to
be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, even though studies
have repeatedly shown that the two groups use the drug at similar rates.

New federal data, included in a study by the American Civil Liberties
Union, now shows that the problem of racially biased arrests is far
more extensive that was previously known - and is getting worse. The
costly, ill-advised "war on marijuana" might fairly be described as a
tool of racial oppression.

The study, based on law enforcement data from 50 states and the
District of Columbia, is the most detailed of its kind so far.
Marijuana arrests have risen sharply over the last two decades and now
make up about half of all drug arrests in the United States. Of the
more than eight million marijuana arrests made between 2001 and 2010,
nearly 90 percent were for possession. There were nearly 900,000
marijuana arrests in 2010 - 300,000 more than for all violent crimes
combined.

Nationally, African-Americans are nearly four times as likely to be
arrested for marijuana possession as whites. The disparity is even
more pronounced in some states, including Illinois, Iowa and
Minnesota, where African-Americans are about eight times as likely to
be arrested. And in some counties around the country, blacks are 10,
15 or even 30 times as likely to be arrested.

This nationwide pattern is evident in all kinds of communities - urban
and rural, wealthy and low income, in places where the
African-American populations are large and in places where they are
small.

As the report notes, police officers who are targeting black citizens
and black neighborhoods are turning "a comparatively blind eye to the
same conduct occurring at the same rates in many white
communities."

Paradoxically, this is happening at a time when polls show growing
public support for full legalization. Two states, Colorado and
Washington, have legalized the drug for general use by adults; 18
others and the District of Columbia have legalized it for medical use.
The mindless push to make low-level possession arrests distracts the
police from serious crime, wastes billions of dollars and alienates
minority citizens from the law. It also brings disastrous consequences
for young people, as convictions can lead to fines, jail time and
temporary loss of federal student financial aid - not to mention
criminal records that make it difficult for them to find housing or
work. The report urges the states to license and regulate marijuana,
legalizing it for people 21 or older.

Regardless of laws in individual states, federal officials and local
police departments need to abandon policies that evaluate officers
based on numerical arrest goals, which encourage petty arrests, along
with illegal stops that violate the Fourth Amendment.

This also means restructuring a main federal program that finances
state and local efforts to enforce drug laws so that petty marijuana
arrests are no longer counted as evidence of effective police
performance. Beyond that, law enforcement agencies need to put an end
to what is obviously a widespread practice of racial profiling.
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