poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 11,543
Marijuana May Mean Ticket, Not Arrest, in New York City
The New York Police Department, which has been arresting tens of thousands of people a year for low-level marijuana possession, is poised to stop making such arrests and to issue tickets instead, according to law enforcement officials.
People found with small amounts of marijuana would be issued court summonses and be allowed to continue on their way without being handcuffed and taken to station houses for fingerprinting.
The change would remake the way the police in New York City handle the most common drug offenses and would represent Mayor Bill de Blasio’s most significant effort since taking office to address the enduring effects of the department’s excessive stop-and-frisk practices.
Curbing arrests for small-scale marijuana possession has become a cause for criminal justice reform advocates, and this year, the new Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, said he would stop prosecuting such cases. But his announcement did not go over well with Mr. de Blasio and his police commissioner, William J. Bratton, who vowed to continue making low-level marijuana arrests.
The administration of Bill de Blasio is publicly embracing the notion that small-scale drug possession merits different treatment than arrests. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Now, the de Blasio administration is publicly embracing the notion that such small-scale possession merits different treatment. And with the changes, City Hall is moving to retake control of a politically potent issue that has enormous resonance in the black and Latino communities, where a vast majority of small-scale marijuana arrests have taken place.
In the first eight months of the year, blacks and Hispanics represented 86 percent of those arrested for marijuana possession in the city, according to a study written in part by Harry G. Levine, a sociology professor at Queens College who is a director of the Marijuana Arrest Research Project.
Many details of the changes planned by the de Blasio administration are still being discussed at City Hall, and many questions remain unanswered. Under the new policy, for example, will the 25 grams or less that constitutes misdemeanor possession under state law be the threshold below which a summons is issued? Will a lit marijuana cigarette be treated differently from a packet of unsmoked cannabis? Other key questions, such as the cost of the fines or whether a criminal record would typically result from a summons, may not be up to City Hall.
Document: Order for Summons, in Lieu of Arrest, for Possession of Marijuana
A clearer picture is expected to emerge this week, as Mr. de Blasio prepares for his first meeting with the city’s five district attorneys. A spokeswoman for the mayor, Marti Adams, declined to comment on the proposed policy change, although officials in two of the district attorney’s offices confirmed that the de Blasio administration was working on a new policy for how the police handle marijuana cases.
In an interview on Sunday, Mr. Thompson expressed concern about the mayor’s plan, calling it an end-run around the district attorneys that could end up hurting some of the very people the changes are supposed to help.
Since July, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office has dismissed 849 misdemeanor marijuana cases involving police arrests, or about 34 percent of the total 2,526 such cases in Brooklyn.
Cont -
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/n...rests-officials-say.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=1
The New York Police Department, which has been arresting tens of thousands of people a year for low-level marijuana possession, is poised to stop making such arrests and to issue tickets instead, according to law enforcement officials.
People found with small amounts of marijuana would be issued court summonses and be allowed to continue on their way without being handcuffed and taken to station houses for fingerprinting.
The change would remake the way the police in New York City handle the most common drug offenses and would represent Mayor Bill de Blasio’s most significant effort since taking office to address the enduring effects of the department’s excessive stop-and-frisk practices.
Curbing arrests for small-scale marijuana possession has become a cause for criminal justice reform advocates, and this year, the new Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, said he would stop prosecuting such cases. But his announcement did not go over well with Mr. de Blasio and his police commissioner, William J. Bratton, who vowed to continue making low-level marijuana arrests.
The administration of Bill de Blasio is publicly embracing the notion that small-scale drug possession merits different treatment than arrests. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Now, the de Blasio administration is publicly embracing the notion that such small-scale possession merits different treatment. And with the changes, City Hall is moving to retake control of a politically potent issue that has enormous resonance in the black and Latino communities, where a vast majority of small-scale marijuana arrests have taken place.
In the first eight months of the year, blacks and Hispanics represented 86 percent of those arrested for marijuana possession in the city, according to a study written in part by Harry G. Levine, a sociology professor at Queens College who is a director of the Marijuana Arrest Research Project.
Many details of the changes planned by the de Blasio administration are still being discussed at City Hall, and many questions remain unanswered. Under the new policy, for example, will the 25 grams or less that constitutes misdemeanor possession under state law be the threshold below which a summons is issued? Will a lit marijuana cigarette be treated differently from a packet of unsmoked cannabis? Other key questions, such as the cost of the fines or whether a criminal record would typically result from a summons, may not be up to City Hall.
Document: Order for Summons, in Lieu of Arrest, for Possession of Marijuana
A clearer picture is expected to emerge this week, as Mr. de Blasio prepares for his first meeting with the city’s five district attorneys. A spokeswoman for the mayor, Marti Adams, declined to comment on the proposed policy change, although officials in two of the district attorney’s offices confirmed that the de Blasio administration was working on a new policy for how the police handle marijuana cases.
In an interview on Sunday, Mr. Thompson expressed concern about the mayor’s plan, calling it an end-run around the district attorneys that could end up hurting some of the very people the changes are supposed to help.
Since July, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office has dismissed 849 misdemeanor marijuana cases involving police arrests, or about 34 percent of the total 2,526 such cases in Brooklyn.
Cont -
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/n...rests-officials-say.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=1
