91% of D.C. Pot Charges Are Filed Against Black People, Only 6% Filed Against Whites

[23536]

http://reason.com/blog/2013/04/23/91-of-dc-pot-charges-are-filed-against-b

A few months back I argued that marijuana users in Washington, D.C. are more concerned with the proper etiquette for getting baked than they are with being victims of, or--dare I say it?--accomplices in, the war on drugs. At the time, I argued that even when powerful D.C. denizens were busted for pot offenses, the experience entailed more bark than bite.

What I failed to note in that post is that D.C. police don't extend the courtesy of a blind eye to everyone. Washington City Paper's Rend Smith reports that

In 2007, a black person was eight times more likely to be arrested for a District marijuana offense than a white person, even though researchers have exposed what any college pot dealer can tell you from the comfort of his Barcalounger: Members of both racial groups consume cannabis at nearly equal rates.

D.C.'s dope divide is just as striking when you zoom out. According to arrest numbers obtained from the Metropolitan Police Department and crunched by a statistician, between 2005 and 2011, D.C. cops filed 30,126 marijuana offense charges. A staggering number of those—27,560, or 91 percent—were filed against African-Americans. Only 2,097 were filed against whites.

Blame-the-victim folklore contends that pot-arrest asymmetries, which show up in various cities around the country, are about blacks smoking outside and getting their pot on street corners. Recent studies contradict that. And if D.C.'s shameful pot disparity was about anything but racial bias, we'd see it narrowing.

Instead, though the number of black and white pot charges filed fluctuated from year to year, reefer charges filed against blacks rose 6 percent and declined 10 percent for whites between 2005 and 2011.

In other D.C. marijuana news, Capital City Care today became the first licensed medical marijuana dispensary in Washington, D.C.

http://reason.com/blog/2013/04/23/91-of-dc-pot-charges-are-filed-against-b

 

[slimvictor]

The War on Drugs = a War on People... but not all people.
Mostly the ones that have the wrong color of skin, or are wearing the wrong type of clothing or hairstyle.

 

[SDforever420]

Same result in NYC with stop and frisk

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

Yeah one can't deny that "The War" is racist.

 

[PsySci]

The War on Drugs = a War on People... but not all people.
Mostly the ones that have the wrong color of skin, or are wearing the wrong type of clothing or hairstyle.

I respectfully disagree. Even the wealthiest most priviliged spoiled SOB brat offspring of the power elite is denied the safe, healthy, and productive use of psychedelics etc and is cursed by his forebears to live out his days in a superficially luxurious but spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, socially empty mental prison. I'd rather be a poor and obviously oppressed member of a racial minority/subculture with the potential for cognitive liberty and spiritual growth than be a spoiled aristocrat whose mind, heart, and soul are destroyed systemically from birth. Indeed, I'm grateful all of the time that I was born and raised poor and that I turned down the chance to join the aristocracy.

Edited to add:

There's a reason why the WOD and the state primarily target minorities/subcultures - those groups are weaker and make for better victims. It's not the color of the skin that matters - it's the probability that they will be able and willing to resist. Those who by virtue of historical precedent are at a disadvantage are going to be the primary targets. Same goes for other groups - people wearing hemp with dreads are not going to put up nearly as much of a legal fight as people wearing suits with expensive haircuts...so who is going to get crushed first?

That's why I usually stay clean shaven, short hair, well dressed, with no visible body mods. If I had been born black I'd wear a suit and tie and very shiny shoes - all of the time.

 

[severely etarded]

Well D.C. is a mostly black city, but the numbers are still a bit disproportionate against blacks.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Well D.C. is a mostly black city

You wouldn't even know that there are (somehow) white people in DC unless you venture out of the ghetto parts of DC.

I loved the black community that ran the needle exchange in DC before it got shut down; they were some of the kindest people I had ever met. They were the kind of people who weren't needle users themselves, but were there just knowing that they were saving me (and others) from a lifetime of suffering from preventing stuff like HIV, Hep C, from transmitting - etc. - god bless their souls

Same result in NYC with stop and frisk

I'd hate to visit NYC if I had a strong degree of a tan; they might mistake me for a muslim, then I'd be stopped and frisked more often than I get to do bupe in a day.