New York – too little, too late

As a follow-up to the story of the New York Police Commissioner asking cops to obey the law, the New York Times has a powerful editorial: Trouble With Marijuana Arrests

Commissioner Raymond Kelly of the New York Police Department came forth with too little, too late when he issued a memo directing officers not to arrest people caught with small amounts of marijuana unless the drug is in plain public view. A 1977 law decriminalized minor possession, yet tens of thousands are arrested every year. […]

While the memo, reported by WNYC last week, is an important step, it does not by itself end the problem. The United States Justice Department and New York lawmakers should investigate the legality of practices that led to the arrests of hundreds of thousands of people since the mid-1990s. […]

This policing practice has damaged young lives and deserves deeper scrutiny by federal and state monitors.

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14 Responses to New York – too little, too late

  1. claygooding says:

    The explanation for the arrests is right in front of them,,just ask the ONDCP how much bounty money the city of New York received for their great work in arresting pot heads,,,seems to me the arrests picked up just about the time our government decided to put bounty money on drug law enforcement.

  2. pt says:

    Deserves? Absolutely! Will get? LOL! Yeah right!
    It wouldn’t matter anyways, Until the entire prohibition of currently illegal drugs is scrutinized, we are merely waiting for the next corrupt law enforcement scheme then crying foul and waiting years before the public catches up with outcry, only to have the practice ended and zero accountability. It is a vicious cycle and only prohibition itself is to blame.

  3. tintguy says:

    I know! We can set up stings to catch the offending officers and offer plea bargins to some for rolling on their bosses who allow this behaivor and lock up most of them to “send a meaasge”. Sound familiar?

  4. Dante says:

    From the article:
    “This policing practice has damaged young lives and deserves deeper scrutiny by federal and state monitors.”

    The list of “policing practice” that harms people rather than helps them is endless. If and when this “practice” is ended it will be replaced by even-worse practices. The police are no longer protecting & serving the nation. Now, we are their prey.

    Protect & Serve (Themselves!)

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      Law Enforcement isn’t there to help the people that they arrest, even in my personal fantasy land Utopian society. The people that they arrest are supposed to be assholes who’s existence is a net negative to society AND (not and/or) who violate the rights of others.

    • kaptinemo says:

      Yup. ‘Prey’. That’s just it, isn’t it?

      But the ‘hunters’ are only chasing rabbits, not the rabidly vicious wolves; the wolves have teeth and are quite willing to use them, as is demonstrated daily in Mexico…and eventually will be here, as the narcos become more emboldened in their operations on US soil.

    • Servetus says:

      In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Maia Szalavitz discusses the availability and success of Naloxone kits (10,000 ODs prevented) with this quote:

      “Prejudice against people based on the substances they use is one of the few remaining acceptable biases.””

      http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/drugs-risk-and-the-myth-of-the-evil-addict/?hp

      • DdC says:

        “Would the American public put up with this treatment if it was happening to gay and lesbian people? To Jews? To Muslims? Certainly not!”
        ~ Old Hippie

        Pot Smokers Are The Most Officially Oppressed Minority In America

        Drug labelling error forces retraction…After RAVE Ax Passes

        Dance Safe!
        Drug Information and Harm Reduction Resources
        ADULTERANT SCREENING KITS

        Message to kids… Better dead than some drugs?
        I think it’s clearly Un-American when laws are made to stop people from being safe. When Biden’s BS tacked the RAVE Ax onto the Amber alert, banning Dance Safe from testing XTC, glow sticks and bottled water. FiendsteinHatcherBills trying to censor internet speech. Busting needle exchanges. Knowingly spreading diseases that could easily be prevented. Shutting down the IND still rolling joints for Elvy and 3 others. While millions wasted away or told to take thalidomide in spite of the risk. All of the fascism with no knock, smells, sounds and snitch warrant less and secret sneak and peak searches. Outlawing Ganja and especially Hemp. Czarbarry McCaffrey busting birdseed, counting ditchweed, JPeeWaldo busting Indians vegetable wool thinking they had sovereignty. Ashcraft killing Rainbow Farm. Lungren murdering Peter McWilliams. Gag rules for truthfully defending yourself in court. Mandatory sentences, 3 strikes, forced rehabilitation and disgusting pisstastes. War Profiteers protecting what, besides their own profits? Jobs outsourced, farmers bankrupt and I have to import my Hemp blue jeans and Seed & Oil. Starving babies and illegal food. Pro Life abortionists. Dung Worriers and DEAth Merchants selling Big Pharma, Ag and Big Oil monopolies. Patriot Ax setting up drug busts. While the sheep graze on Faux fud and News. Where have all the flowers gone?

        Cover-Ups, Prevarications, Subversions & Sabotage

  5. If a police officer instructs one to go through a red light or stop sign, one can not then be ticketed for the offense.

    SO how could the practice of arresting people for following a police command to empty one’s pockets EVER have led to any MJ arrests for so-called public display?

    • darkcycle says:

      The direction to violate an ordinance (go through that stop sign) is considered a lawful order. When the police order you to “empty your pockets”, that is not even a lawful order. You may decline (although expect to be delayed, harassed, and possibly arrested anyway, only to have your “case” dismissed down the line). If you comply, you have voluntarily waived your fourth am. rights and incriminated yourself. Also, that cop ordered you to “empty your pockets”, in itself not a violation of any law.He did not order you to display pot.

      • Emptying one’s pockets hardly qualifies as public display of MJ (how if it can’t neccessarily be readily seen).

        I say, make the police responsible for the “crime”

      • DdC says:

        They told me they were patting me down for weapons, not searching. I didn’t have to empty my pockets. Just a pat down wasting my time. Without consent they will threaten to get dogs and make it worse. Intimidation, humiliation and then you go.

  6. warren says:

    If these crooked cop bastards are doing it with mj there doing the deception shuffle on all other incidents.

  7. divadab says:

    ” I DO NOT CONSENT TO ANY SEARCH. ”

    Really fucking sad that the guys supposed to be upholding the law try to trick people into consenting to an illegal search right off the bat. I wouldn’t have believed it if it hadn’t happened to me incidental to a traffic stop.

    Don’t these fuckers swear an oath to uphold the Constitution? Then why do they break it as a matter of habit?

    Legitimate authority is granted; unjust dominion is imposed. Which is the model these guys follow? Why should we therefore respect them, why should we pay them, why should we honor them?

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