Cops arrest more people for pot in New York than in almost any other state. And arrests for possession of small amounts are on the rise in NYC, despite Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign promise to focus on larger crimes.
Yesterday, at a press conference outside One Police Plaza, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries asked the NYPD and the de Blasio administration to slow down. “The new administration promised change, but instead we got more of the same,” the Brooklyn-Queens Democrat said. Jefferies also sent a letter urging NYPD Comissioner Bill Bratton to stop pursuing small pot busts.
Pot arrests this year were, as usual, wildly disproportionate in terms of race. Of the 7,000 people who were arrested for small-time possession between January and March of this year, 86 percent were black or Latino.
Bratton told the Daily News this week that the idea of decriminalization is ” a major mistake,” and something he “will never support.” Maybe he and de Blasio haven’t gotten the memo that weed was decriminalized here nearly forty years ago.
(Photo: Arbri Shameti)
