Whites Smoke Pot, but Blacks Are Arrested

The majority of arrests are arrests of minorities. This is true because the majority of policing happens in minority neighborhoods. The majority of policing happens in minority neighborhoods because that's where the most crime is.

Statistically speaking, the majority of people arrested for smoking pot should obviously be minorities.

It has little to do with racism and more to do with the distribution of the police force.
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the only sensible post i've seen in this thread.
 
flacky said:
^ Many people would argue that this is due to attitudes within those communities.
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no. maybe a part of the reason, but by NO means is that the whole reason. learn yourself a little bit about history, economics, geography, and sociology, and then comeback to me with your schtick that it's these racial groups' attitudes that keeps them down their whole life, and that keeps every generation to come down, as well. it's just not true (nor has it ever been) that "all men are created equal" here in the US. it's just not.
 
I'm very well educated and I'm actually from the area in question. The majority of my friends are from the demographics mentioned. You apparently have never spent any time in a ghetto.

The fact is that despite the fantasy that people put up about our country actively trying to put down minority groups, the bare reality is that there is not a single mechanism in existence that does that. If you've ever made a trip to a shitty neighborhood -- kind of like the one that I made last night to spend Christmas with my friend and his family -- then you've realized that these are neighborhoods built on a foundation of subsidization. People live in subsidized housing with subsidized utility bills eating subsidized food, paid for by Joe Taxpayer.

If you're really going to cite the economy and the government as reasons for the perpetuation of crime in minority neighborhoods, then you need to step back and look at what you're saying. The government does almost everything within its means to provide aid. In fact, I was doing community service for Public Counsel in LA informing homeless people and other welfare-recipients of their legal rights. As apart of my training for doing this, I was briefed on every legal aspect of the social welfare system as it exists in Los Angeles (and from my personal experience, basically the same way that it exists in NYC). So if you're going to tell me that I'm misinformed about the political or economical aspects of poverty, then you need to sit there and think for a minute. I was born and raised in NYC, now live in Los Angeles and have worked as legal aid at a benefits office. I'll let you decide who's more qualified.

On the topic of the sociological aspects of crime and poverty, community attitudes are one of the largest contributing factors. People don't like to acknowledge that because they like to live in a fantasy where people don't make decisions and are really helpless perfect people under everything. Unfortunately for them, and you, they're wrong. Half of the dealers that I've encountered live at home with their parents or children and sell drugs out of their houses. This is enabled by a societal acceptance of that behavior. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that that makes them any less of people, but the bare fact of the matter is that this particular attitude enables crime. In this specific example, the crime is drug dealing, however other attitudes exist.

A lot of it has to do with a lack of education. For example, more educated people resolve conflicts differently than less educated people. More educated people talk things out, less educated people will tend to get more physical about it. When you have a society that often does not encourage (or sometimes outright discourages) education, then crime will likely rise.

I'm not going to give you a full and waterproof answer in one post, but I think this paints a gist of the picture.

The fact is that this article is a very good example of create-a-problem-where-there-is-none journalism. People get arrested more where there are more police. There are more police in places with more crime. There is more crime in places with lower living standards. Places with lower living standards tend to be populated by minorities.

Thus, more minorities will be arrested. Simple shit.

Blaming minorites is wrong. Blacks and hispanics are not inherently bad people. It would be ignorant to say so. In the right circumstances, they are equally sucessful and prominent as anyone else. But claiming some sort of massive attack on the human condition in a statistically sound situation is equally ignorant.
 
I'm not arguing where the arrests are made and that the location correlates with the ethnicity of the arrested since it's sound, but it seems to me that you're somewhat dismissing the racism based on that.

Now, we don't know what type of records these people already have or what they were charged with, but this quote implies there is some racial inequality...

The handful of white pot smokers who do get arrested can be found in court on Mondays and Tuesdays, when they must answer tickets typically issued for smoking pot in a park. The rest of the week is taken up with blacks and Latinos, who are more likely to have spent a night in jail before court, said Edward McCarthy, a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society.
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^ That's because cops in bad neighborhoods fuck with you a lot more than cops in good neighborhoods. As someone who was born and raised in NYC, take it from me that's straight truth. A couple of my boys got busted smoking in Park Slope (one white, one hispanic) and the cops took their shit and smoked it, no ticket. People I know who've been caught elsewhere, different story.

A lot of it too is they'll use it as an excuse to search you and that can be why you have a court date, if they find something else. Also, sometimes if they don't find anything, they'll bring you down to central just because you pissed them off.
 
so now its all about neighbourhoods?

these black smokers are just in the wrong place at the wrong time i guess.

i bet if a black smoker were in a good neighbourhood he'd still have more chance of getting arrested.
 
flacky said:
I'm very well educated and I'm actually from the area in question. The majority of my friends are from the demographics mentioned. You apparently have never spent any time in a ghetto.

The fact is that despite the fantasy that people put up about our country actively trying to put down minority groups, the bare reality is that there is not a single mechanism in existence that does that. If you've ever made a trip to a shitty neighborhood -- kind of like the one that I made last night to spend Christmas with my friend and his family -- then you've realized that these are neighborhoods built on a foundation of subsidization. People live in subsidized housing with subsidized utility bills eating subsidized food, paid for by Joe Taxpayer.

If you're really going to cite the economy and the government as reasons for the perpetuation of crime in minority neighborhoods, then you need to step back and look at what you're saying. The government does almost everything within its means to provide aid. In fact, I was doing community service for Public Counsel in LA informing homeless people and other welfare-recipients of their legal rights. As apart of my training for doing this, I was briefed on every legal aspect of the social welfare system as it exists in Los Angeles (and from my personal experience, basically the same way that it exists in NYC). So if you're going to tell me that I'm misinformed about the political or economical aspects of poverty, then you need to sit there and think for a minute. I was born and raised in NYC, now live in Los Angeles and have worked as legal aid at a benefits office. I'll let you decide who's more qualified.

On the topic of the sociological aspects of crime and poverty, community attitudes are one of the largest contributing factors. People don't like to acknowledge that because they like to live in a fantasy where people don't make decisions and are really helpless perfect people under everything. Unfortunately for them, and you, they're wrong. Half of the dealers that I've encountered live at home with their parents or children and sell drugs out of their houses. This is enabled by a societal acceptance of that behavior. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that that makes them any less of people, but the bare fact of the matter is that this particular attitude enables crime. In this specific example, the crime is drug dealing, however other attitudes exist.

A lot of it has to do with a lack of education. For example, more educated people resolve conflicts differently than less educated people. More educated people talk things out, less educated people will tend to get more physical about it. When you have a society that often does not encourage (or sometimes outright discourages) education, then crime will likely rise.

I'm not going to give you a full and waterproof answer in one post, but I think this paints a gist of the picture.

The fact is that this article is a very good example of create-a-problem-where-there-is-none journalism. People get arrested more where there are more police. There are more police in places with more crime. There is more crime in places with lower living standards. Places with lower living standards tend to be populated by minorities.

Thus, more minorities will be arrested. Simple shit.

Blaming minorites is wrong. Blacks and hispanics are not inherently bad people. It would be ignorant to say so. In the right circumstances, they are equally sucessful and prominent as anyone else. But claiming some sort of massive attack on the human condition in a statistically sound situation is equally ignorant.
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You definitely know what you are talking about. The media is so full of BS articles like this one. People write articles like this because they know that certain people find these stories more interesting.



I live in Sacramento, Ca but I used to live in a small town in southern Indiana. It was a town of about 2000 people and of those 2000; 1995 of them were white people. There was 1 black family.

Most of the arrest for drug possession happened in the area around the trailer park. The people who lived in the trailer park were uneducated and poor. The crime rate was higher in this area. But everyone who lived there was still white.

If I am off base than someone please correct me, but this seems like exactly what is going on in NYC. You have a greater police presence in the areas where there is more crime and therefore more arrest.

The difference is that in NYC minorities make up most of the population in these areas where in Indiana white people made up the population in both areas.
 
On the racially motivated cops, yes, there are racially motivated cops. But it's hardly a "White only" thing. If there were the same percentage of black cops on the force as white cops, I can guarantee you that it would be just as racially motivated. Trust me, I live in New Orleans where 51% of the police is black, and probably get just as much flack as a black man in N.Y. from a white officer. (BTW New Orleans is the most corrupt police dept. in the states)
 
the "marihuana" laws are racist laws in themselves.


proper education is needed on cannabis and drugs in general.
i implore you (readers) to look into the history of the cannabis laws if you are not aware of the
full picture.

quite an interesting story ;)
 
This is upsetting but I will never be able to get rid of that little voice in the back of my head that says, "Thank God I'm white, better them than me."
 
Whites rule, get the fuck over it. I am so tired of cry baby black people who think they are being targeted. If you act and look like a respectable person than you too could walk down the street smoking a joint in whatever part of NY this article was covering. Of course if I strolled down the block in D.C. smoking a joint I'd be arrested way before I have a chance to catch a buzz and I am a tall, polite, young white male. With that said fuck you, just fuck you.

This post was not racially motivated, it was racially instigated by the thread starter.
 
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phrozen said:
I'm not arguing where the arrests are made and that the location correlates with the ethnicity of the arrested since it's sound, but it seems to me that you're somewhat dismissing the racism based on that.

Now, we don't know what type of records these people already have or what they were charged with, but this quote implies there is some racial inequality...
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True, but it's a quote... Not saying I don't believe there is racist policy but a legal aid society left wing lawyer upping the ante wouldn't surprise me either =D

That said, America in general can be pretty damn racist. Racism really repulses me. I like racial humor , but as soon as I notice someone is serious about their racism they can fuck right off. discrimination is another thing though. Religion is something you choose. the political correct banner on top of this page really cracks me up, I mean "joyous ramadan, you fucking drug user! You are gonna burn in hell!! but first we are gonna stone you to death for idolizing marijunana" It's a joke right? Because it's not even close to ramadan and combining islam with drug use is just not possible drugs are bad and allah is an unforgiving MEAN motherfucker!

fuck I'm high
 
marijuana laws are racist.

not just in NY, where 87% of arrests were non-white a couple of years ago (yes ok, an element of classism is also involved), but on an international scale.

asian countries used this drug for 1000s of years (origin is India). they only became outlawed when US intervened with foreign policy aid which basically held these countries to randsom as recently as 1980s.
otherwise, you could argue, that these countries would have the brand name for production (like scotland does for whiskey, russia for vodka - italy for designer clothes).
 
Conflict Theory of Criminology

I'm a minority. I have real world law enforcement experience (on the side of THE MAN I should say), and post graduate education in Criminological theory and Criminal Justice.

I'm not going to go into it here. But research "Conflict Theory" of criminological/maladaptive behavior & criminal justice (penology, etc.). The theory came out of the "hippie" Berkley criminology scene of the 1960's. Basically said, conflict theory is the theory that laws and the responses to these laws are made by those in power to control and suppress those not in power. Now this is very simply stated and this is a whole meta theory of human behavior and how it relates to criminology.

Anyone want to discuss further I can help PMingly.
 
True in SoCal where it is decriminalized. Whites get caught with weed, the cop trashes it and sends them on their way. Minority gets caught with weed, they get cited, and get a record that follows them into job interviews.
 
yeah anyone that lives here knows its simultaneously the most liberal and most racist place you can be. depends on who you are. some people are so used to the mashup of every fucking culture in the world that they dont even acknowledge race anymore, people are just people. some people take that same wonderful melting pot and use it to judge and separate themselves from wide groupings of different ethnic groups for various political reasons, all of which are racist. cops here have a stereotype of being the latter.

but as for weed? damn right i can smoke weed just about anywhere i want because im white. if i was black, id keep that shit a lot more discrete. it has nothing to do with weed, it has everything to do with an exploit to target specific ethnic groups.

i mean i wouldnt smoke a j in the ice rink in central park and blow it in peoples faces or anything. but everyone i know has smoked while walking down madison avenue, smoked through central park, smoked a j while waiting in line for a huge club/venue, smoked walking through various streets, in broad daylight, in huge crowds, etc. its really like if youre from certain ethnic groups, you have a much higher chance of being harassed for it. if youre white, youre least likely to get shit for it. hell they take public drunkenness more serious than possession of small amounts of weed here.

brooklyn is a totally different story than manhattan. feel free to blaze any time, any where, just not in front of the precinct or at a school yo. if you live in bk, and you adamantly dont smoke weed, people would think you mad weird.

CollegeoftheUnseen said:
I'm not going to go into it here. But research "Conflict Theory" of criminological/maladaptive behavior & criminal justice (penology, etc.). The theory came out of the "hippie" Berkley criminology scene of the 1960's. Basically said, conflict theory is the theory that laws and the responses to these laws are made by those in power to control and suppress those not in power.
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Its a 2500 year old theory, predating the golden era of Hellenic philosophy. The Scythian 'philosopher' Anacharsis is credited with the quote, "Written laws are like spider's webs, and will only entangle the weak while the powerful pass through."
 
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