"Breaking News: New York Teenagers Like Smoking Weed" By James King, Village Voice,  August, 13 2012

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/08/breaking_news_n.php#more

In what might come to a shock as precisely no one, teenagers in New York like to smoke weed. What is somewhat shocking is the number of teens willing to admit that they like smoking weed.

A new survey conducted by the Centers For Disease Control shows that 17.7 percent of New York City teens smoke pot -- and are willing to admit it to pollsters.

That figure is the highest rate of teenage potheads since health bully/New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg began his reign over the health habits of New Yorkers 10 years ago -- the rate is up from 12.3 percent in 2005.

"The Marijuana Arrest Problem, Continued"   Editorial, New York Times, July 4, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/the-marijuana-arrest-problem-continued.html

Commissioner Raymond Kelly of the New York Police Department issued a memorandum in September ordering officers to follow a 1977 state law that bars them from arresting people with small amounts of marijuana, unless the drug is publicly displayed.

Yet a lawsuit filed in state court in late June charges that the police were still arresting people illegally — in clear violation of both the law and the memo — as recently as May. State data show that the number of marijuana arrests declined in the months after the directive was issued but began climbing again this spring.

The Legislature passed the 1977 decriminalization law to allow prosecutors to focus on serious crime and to stop police from jailing young people for tiny amounts of marijuana. It made possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana a violation punishable by a $100 fine for the first offense. To discourage public smoking of the drug, lawmakers made public display a misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail and a $500 fine.

The number of arrests in the city for minor possession declined after the law was passed but shot up from less than 1,000 in 1990 to 50,000 in 2011. And, of the nearly 12,000 16-to-19-year-olds arrested last year, almost 94 percent had no prior convictions and nearly half had never before been arrested. More than 80 percent of those arrested were black and Hispanic young people.

Defense lawyers have increasingly made the case that officers were illegally charging suspects with “public possession” after directing them to reveal the drug or fishing it out of their pockets during constitutionally questionable searches. The new lawsuit, filed by the Legal Aid Society, lists five plaintiffs, all of whom lawyers say were illegally arrested this spring. In one case, according to the lawsuit, the police officer admitted in a supporting deposition that he had searched the individual and retrieved the drugs to make the arrest.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to end unfair prosecutions with a measure to make public possession a violation, unless the person was smoking the marijuana in public. The State Senate killed the bill. With Albany’s failure to act, the courts need to step in to stop this abusive behavior.

"Numbers Tell of Failure in Drug War" By Eduardo Porter, New York Times, July 3, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/business/in-rethinking-the-war-on-drugs-start-with-the-numbers.html?pagewanted=all

....The only dimension along which the war on drugs might be conceived as a success is political. If you ask Americans how concerned they are about drugs, they will give you roughly the same answer they have given for years: not so much.

In a Gallup poll, only 31 percent of Americans said they thought the government was making much progress dealing with illegal drugs, the lowest share since 1997. But fewer people say they worry about drug abuse than 10 years ago. Only 29 percent of Americans think it is an extremely or very serious problem where they live, the lowest share in the last decade.

But the government has spent $20 billion to $25 billion a year on counternarcotics efforts over the last decade. That is a pretty high price tag for political cover, to stop drugs from becoming a prominent issue on voters’ radar screen. It becomes unacceptably high if you add in the real costs of the drug wars. That includes more than 55,000 Mexicans and tens of thousands of Central Americans killed by drug-fueled violence since Mexico’s departing president, Felipe Calderón, declared war six years ago against the traffickers ferrying drugs across the border.

And the domestic costs are enormous, too. Almost one in five inmates in state prisons and half of those in federal prisons are serving time for drug offenses. In 2010, 1.64 million people were arrested for drug violations. Four out of five arrests were for possession. Nearly half were for possession of often-tiny amounts of marijuana.

Harry Levine, a sociologist at Queens College of the City University of New York, told me that processing each of the roughly 85,000 arrests for drug misdemeanors in New York City last year cost the city $1,500 to $2,000. And that is just the cost to the budget. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, mostly black and poor, are unable to get a job, a credit card or even an apartment to rent because of the lasting stigma of a criminal record for carrying an ounce of marijuana.

Cracking down hard on drug users may sound great on the stump. But Americans who inject drugs are four times as likely to have H.I.V. as British addicts and seven times as likely as drug-injecting Swiss, mainly because the United States has been much slower in introducing needle exchanges and other measures to address the impact of drug abuse on public health.

The Obama administration acknowledges the limitations of the drug wars, and has shifted its priorities, focusing more on drug abuse prevention and treatment of addicts, and less on enforcement.

Still, many critics of the current policy believe the solution is to legalize — to bring illegal drugs out of the shadows where they are controlled by criminal gangs, into the light of the legal market where they can be regulated and taxed by the government.

Jeffrey Miron, an economist at Harvard who studies drug policy closely, has suggested that legalizing all illicit drugs would produce net benefits to the United States of some $65 billion a year, mostly by cutting public spending on enforcement as well as through reduced crime and corruption.

A study by analysts at the RAND Corporation, a California research organization, suggested that if marijuana were legalized in California and the drug spilled from there to other states, Mexican drug cartels would lose about a fifth of their annual income of some $6.5 billion from illegal exports to the United States.

A growing array of Latin American presidents have asked for the United States to consider legalizing some drugs, like marijuana. Even Mr. Calderón is realizing the futility of the war against the narco-syndicates. He asked President Obama and the United States Congress last month to consider “market solutions” to reduce the cash flow to criminal groups.

Legalization may carry risks, too. Peter H. Reuter, one of the authors of the RAND study, who is now a professor of public policy in the department of criminology of the University of Maryland, said he worried that legalizing drugs would vastly expand drug abuse, leading to other potential social and health costs. Supporters of the war on drugs insist that without it, consumption would have soared to the heights of the 1980s and perhaps beyond.

There are other options. The Global Commission on Drug Policy, whose membership includes former presidents of Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Brazil and Poland, has called on national governments to “depenalize” if not necessarily legalize drug possession and sales.

This means stopping the arrest and imprisonment of people who use drugs but cause no harm to others, and going easy on small-scale dealers, whose arrest does nothing to dent the flow of illegal drugs. It means focusing enforcement efforts on reducing the violence of the drug trade, rather than eliminating the drug market itself. It may also entail giving drugs to the most addicted users, to get them into clinics and off the streets.

Such policies require a drastic change of approach in Mexico and the United States. Their governments could start by acknowledging that drug dependence is a complex condition that is not solved through punishment, and that numbers of addicts or dealers arrested, or tons of drugs seized, are hardly measures of success.

A war on drugs whose objective is to eradicate the drug market — to stop drugs from arriving in the United States and stop Americans from swallowing, smoking, inhaling or injecting them — is a war that cannot be won. What we care about is the harm that drugs, drug trafficking and drug policy do to individuals, society and even national security. Reducing this harm is a goal worth fighting for.

“Stop-And-Frisk and the Marijuana Misdemeanor Arrests Outrage” By Ed Koch (Former Mayor, New York City), Huffington Post, June 26, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-koch/stopandfrisk-and-the-mari_b_1626941.html

A great injustice is being perpetrated by members of the New York City Police Department on the people of this city....  According to the [New York] Times of June 23rd,

“NYPD Sued Over Stop and Frisk Marijuana Arrests” by Phillip Smith, Drug War Chronicle, June 25, 2012

 The Legal Aid Society in New York City announced last Friday that it had filed a lawsuit against the NYPD over its continuing practice of making misdemeanor marijuana possession arrests when they order suspects to empty their pockets during the department's controversial stop and frisk searches. Police Commissioner Raymond issued a memorandum last fall directing police not to make the arrests, but only to ticket pot possession offenders, but police continue to charge people with misdemeanors, according to the lawsuit.

 "It's certainly a sad commentary that the commissioner can issue a directive that reads well on paper but on the street corners of the city doesn't exist," said Legal Aid's chief lawyer, Steven Banks.  Under New York state law, marijuana possession is decriminalized, but public possession remains a misdemeanor. In New York City, police order suspects to empty their pockets, then charge them with public possession if a baggie appears....

 The Legal Aid Society filed the suit on behalf of five New Yorkers, all of whom were arrested since mid-April on misdemeanor possession charges after small amounts of pot were found on them during police stops. In each case, the marijuana became visible only after officers searched the men or asked them to empty their pockets.

 "These five individuals are New Yorkers who were essentially victimized by unlawful police practices," Banks said. "The lawsuit is aimed at stopping a pernicious police practice, which is harming thousands of New Yorkers a year and clogging up the court system with one out of seven criminal cases and diverting resources and attention from more serious criminal matters."

One plaintiff, Juan Gomez-Garcia, said he was waiting for a food order outside a Kennedy Fried Chicken restaurant in the Bronx on May 16 when an officer approached, began to question him and asked if he had any drugs on him. Mr. Gomez-Garcia, 27, said that after he admitted to the officer that he had marijuana in his pocket, the officer reached inside the pocket and removed a plastic bag containing a small amount of the drug.

He was arrested and charged with "open to public view" possession for having marijuana "in his right hand." He spent about 12 hours in a jail cell and was let go after he pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct violation, according to the lawsuit.

 Because of the NYPD's massive stop-and-frisk program -- aimed overwhelmingly at young people of color -- and because of the department's willful misinterpretation of the law and refusal to follow Commissioner Kelly's directive, New York City is the nation's marijuana arrest capital. Around 50,000 people a year are charged with misdemeanor pot possession.

 According to the Legal Aid Society, NYPD continues to arrest people for pot possession at about the same pace as ever. While arrests dipped below 3,000 in December, by March, the number of arrests had risen to 4,186, a number almost identical to the 4,189 arrests made last August, before Kelly issued his directive.

________________________________________________________________________________

"NYPD Facing Lawsuit For Ignoring Kelly's Stop-And-Frisks Pot Order"  By Rebecca Fishbein, Gothamist, June 23, 2012

The Legal Aid Society has filed a lawsuit against the city and the NYPD for ignoring Commissioner Kelly's order last September to police officers to stop making misdemeanor arrests for small quantities of marijuana hidden from public view during stop-and-frisks.

The lawsuit, which was filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan yesterday, alleges that police officers are still charging New Yorkers with misdemeanors when finding them in possession of small amounts of hidden marijuana; while arrests on the lowest-level marijuana charges (possession of less than 25 grams in public view) dropped considerably right after Kelly's order was made last fall, they have since continued to climb. In March 2012, 4,186 arrests were made, as compared to 4,189 arrests in August 2011, and the defendants were typically men of color....  

Friday's suit was brought on by five New Yorkers who, since mid-April, were forced to bring small quantities of marijuana hidden in their backpacks or pockets into public view upon being subject to an NYPD stop-and-frisk. They were all subsequently arrested and charged with misdemeanor possession. "The police…repeatedly failed, and continue to fail to follow the law," the 28 page lawsuit reads. "And as a result, subject these individuals to the full arrest process, with all of its direct and collateral negative consequences."

When we asked NYPD officers about Kelly's order during our trip to the stop-and-frisk training facility this week, they told us that officers weren't being trained to incorporate it. Meanwhile, New York remains the number one city to get arrested for low-level pot possession.

Lawsuit Accuses Police of Ignoring Directive on Marijuana Arrests, By Wendy Ruderman and Joseph Goldstein, New York Times, June 22, 2012

Nine months ago, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly issued a memorandum directing police officers not to make arrests for possession of small quantities of marijuana discovered when suspects are ordered to empty their pockets in stop, question and frisk encounters.

But police officers have continued to charge New Yorkers with misdemeanor crimes — rather than issuing them tickets for violations — for possession of small amounts of marijuana despite Mr. Kelly’s directive, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday by the Legal Aid Society.

“It’s certainly a sad commentary that the commissioner can issue a directive that reads well on paper but on the street corners of the city doesn’t exist,” said Legal Aid’s chief lawyer, Steven Banks.

The 28-page lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan against the city and the Police Department, seeks a court order declaring the practice illegal under state law and prohibiting officers from making such arrests. The Police Department would not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

[The full text of the legal document -- the complaint -- is here:

http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/372094/2012-06-22-marijuana-complaint-final.pdf

"What’s Missing From This Picture?"  Editorial, New York Times, June 22, 2012

New York lawmakers had little reason to celebrate the conclusion of this year’s legislative session on Thursday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised the Legislature effusively for its work, but he failed to mention how he and lawmakers created corrupt legislative districts that will remain for a decade — the worst political act of the session....

"Spin City: Inside The NYPD's Stop & Frisk Training Facility"  By Christopher Robbins, The Gothamist,  June 21, 2012

Yesterday the NYPD loaded reporters onto a bus and drove them up to the Bronx to view their updated stop-and-frisk training program at the department's Rodman's Neck facility...  The surreality ended at the press conference, which followed the live-action demonstrations of three stop-and-frisk scenarios that 1,300 "high-impact" officers (those most likely to conduct stops) have completed since April, and are now required for new recruits...

We asked if the new training incorporated Commissioner Kelly's order in September to stop arresting citizens (mostly young men of color) who are essentially tricked into bringing small amounts of marijuana into public view—turning violations into misdemeanors—during stop-and-frisks. "That's not currently part of the training," O'Keefe said.

Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Paul Browne asked Inspector Kerry Sweet, the executive officer of the NYPD's Legal Bureau to chime in. "We enforce the law as it is," Sweet said, as another six people were arrested for marijuana possession. "If there are legislative changes, we will address the changes."

"Gov. Cuomo Says Republicans Sink To 'New Low' Over Fight To Decriminalize Small Amounts Of Marijuana"  By Glenn Blain, New York Daily News,  June 20, 2012

Cuomo’s broadside marked one of his first and strongest criticisms of the Senate GOP — and a full-throated transition into campaign mode.

"Divide in Albany Kills Proposal on Marijuana"  By Thomas Kaplan and John Eligon, New York Times, June 19, 2012

The Democrats who control the State Assembly, many of them black or Latino residents of New York City, saw a proposal to decriminalize the open possession of small amounts of marijuana as a simple matter of justice: too many black and Latino men were being arrested because, after being stopped by the police, they were forced to empty their pockets.

Political Pressure Caused Cuomo's Pot Plan to Go Up in Smoke, By Ailsa Chang, WNYC, June 19, 2012

http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/empire/2012/jun/19/cuomo-says-action-plan-cut-pot-arrests-highly-unlikely/

Governor Andrew Cuomo says it's "highly unlikely" that a bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession in public view will pass before Albany ends its legislative session Thursday. Cuomo announced his support of the bill at the beginning of June, with the backing of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and all five district attorneys in the city, as well as top prosecutors from other New York counties.  But during a press conference Tuesday, Cuomo said that Republicans — who must support the measure for it to pass the state Senate — are under "tremendous" pressure to oppose the legislation.  "The senate got a lot of blow back," Cuomo said.  "Pardon the pun."

Two weeks ago, state Senate majority leader Dean Skelos suggested to reporters that the sticking point for senate Republicans was an issue of marijuana quantity. The proposal would decriminalize public possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana, which Skelos said would open the door to "being able to just walk around with 10 joints in each ear."

But supporters of the bill said Tuesday that the obstacle for Republicans moved to a more political one: pressure from the State Conservative Party. Chairman Mike Long said the Conservative Party would be keeping track of any Republican who supported the measure. "If a Republican votes for decriminalized marijuana," said Long, "they run the risk of losing our endorsement either this year or in the future." Long made good on threats last year when he vowed to retaliate against senate Republicans who voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. Long said decriminalizing marijuana would encourage illicit drug use among young people, and he added that Bloomberg's support of the bill is inconsistent with his other policies."You can't go around campaigning that a large sugary soda is bad for you, but it's okay to have marijuana," Long said.

Gabriel Sayegh, the state director in New York of the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group, said he was surprised that the Conservative Party would be pulling away support from a bill that had so much support from law enforcement. "This is a new rupture. I don't recall a time that we've seen this," he said. Cuomo announced his support of the bill this month, saying the current law was confusing to police officers.  He pointed out marijuana arrests are disproportionately black and Latino, and many arrests for publicly displaying pot result when officers direct people to empty their pockets during stop-and-frisks. Bill supporters say they are committed to passing the bill during any special session called in Albany before the end of the year, or next year.

A more limited version of the bill has been informally proposed by legislators that would have decriminalized only marijuana that's displayed at the direction of an officer during a stop and frisk. But Cuomo said he's seeking broader reform than that.  "Sometimes it's better to try to get the full reform because a partial reform costs you something. It costs you the energy in many ways that you've developed on the issues," the governor said, "and a partial reform can suggest to people, 'Well, we've taken care of that. That's done. Mark it off your list. You don't have to worry anymore.'" Cuomo adds that he's not confident the senate would have passed a stop-and-frisk "exception" anyway. 

Asked about how he feels about the NYPD's stop and frisk tactics, he said, "I'm going to to leave that up to Commissioner Ray Kelly and the mayor. That's an issue for local government."

The proposal to decriminalize the public possession of small amounts of marijuana risks ending a number of objections to the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practices, without properly addressing the racist skew of the policing tactic and the damage it can wreak on the lives of those it targets (namely young black and Latino men in primarily poor neighborhoods). More troubling still, decriminalization as it is currently proposed could lead to even less transparency and accountability when it comes to NYPD practices.

"New York City Council Passes Resolution, Calls on Albany to Pass Legislation Ending Racially Biased, Costly, Unlawful Marijuana Possession Arrests" by Drug Policy Alliance, June 15 2012

http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/2012/06/new-york-city-council-passes-resolution-calls-albany-pass-legislation-ending-racially-b

Yesterday, the New York City Council passed Resolution 986-A which calls for an end to racially biased, costly, unlawful arrests. The resolution, introduced by Council Members Melissa Mark-Viverito and Oliver Koppell, was co-sponsored by a majority of Council members and passed by an overwhelming majority during the monthly Stated meeting. The resolution calls for closing the loophole to clarify the marijuana possession law in New York. The New York State Legislature decriminalized personal possession of marijuana in 1977, finding that arresting people for small amounts of marijuana "needlessly scars thousands of lives while detracting from the prosecution of serious crimes.”

More than ninety percent of marijuana possession arrests come from New York City because of the City’s aggressive stop-and-frisk policies that have swept up 700,000, mostly young and black and Latino men in 2011 alone.

“Despite marijuana having been decriminalized since 1977, tens of thousands of mostly black and Latino young people are arrested after a police officer asks them to take marijuana out of their pocket during a stop-and-frisk,” said Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito. “By passing this resolution, the City Council is calling on the Senate to stop playing politics with the lives of our City’s young black and Latino men and pass this legislation.”

As numerous news articles and research have demonstrated, the NYPD engages in unlawful practice of mischarging and arresting people for marijuana possession after an illegal search; or, the arrest occurs when the person complies with an NYPD officer’s directive to “empty their pockets.” Many people comply, even though they’re not legally required to do so. If a person pulls mari¬juana from their pocket or bag, it is then “open to public view.” The police then arrest the person for burning or possession in public view. These arrests needlessly criminalizes young people – especially young people of color – and harms the relationship between law enforcement and the community.

“This resolution is not just about decriminalizing marijuana. It’s about raising the bar on how we achieve accountability, racial equity, and most of all, public safety built on policies that encourage community engagement and solutions,” said Chino Hardin, leader trainer at Center for NuLeadership. “It is not just a resolution but investment in the right direction, and we call on our legislative leaders to join the growing and diverse community leadership for safety and justice.”

Mayor Bloomberg, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, and all five New York City District Attorneys support legislation in Albany introduced at the request of Governor Cuomo that clarifies the existing marijuana possession in public view law in order to prevent unlawful arrests by police officers and to reduce the racial disparities of those arrested.

“There's no better example of how the war on drugs has become an excuse to criminalize low-income communities of color in New York City than the marijuana arrests crusade. The City Council is showing leadership calling for an to end these racially biased and costly marijuana arrests,” said Alfredo Carasquillo, a community organizer with VOCAL-NY. “It's time to start investing in classrooms, human services and jobs instead of wasting tens of millions of dollars every year locking up tens of thousands of Black and Latino youth for a minor offense that was decriminalized 35 years ago.”

The resolution calls on the New York Senate to act swiftly and pass legislation, "putting Governor Cuomo's proposal into effect in order to end the practice."

“There are five days left of the legislative session, and as we know from data, the marijuana arrests spike in the summer,” said Gabriel Sayegh, state director the Drug Policy Alliance’s New York office. “If the legislature doesn’t act this year, thousands more young people of color will be unlawfully arrested, saddled with a criminal record, and face significant barriers to overcome for life, while their white counterparts will be largely left alone. That's shameful. The time for reform is now."

"New Yorkers Are Systematically Screwed By 'Public View' Marijuana Law. These Are Their Stories"  By James King, Village Voice, June 13, 2012

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/06/new_yorkers_are_15.php

In an effort to persuade New York lawmakers to support Governor Andrew Cuomo's push to decriminalize "public view" marijuana arrests, a drug policy group has started a video campaign to illustrate how people are getting screwed by a loophole in the Marijuana Reform Act, which (supposedly) decriminalized weed in the Empire State in 1979.

As it stands, if you're busted with weed in private, you've committed a violation that's about as serious a crime as a parking ticket. However, if you're caught with weed in public, it's a misdemeanor. The loophole has led to the disproportionate arrests of young minorities (of the roughly 50,000 people arrested each year in New York for low-level marijuana offenses, 87 percent are black or Hispanic).

The Drug Policy Alliance has put together a 15-part series of interviews with people explaining how they were screwed by the "public view" portion of New York's marijuana law.

ALL THE DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE INTERVIEWS ARE ON YOUTUBE HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1C39C63C08181217&feature=plcp

Cuomo’s Pitch: Yes, We Cannabis: Weeding Out The Worst Of Stop-And-Frisk"   column by Bill Hammond,  New York Daily News, June 5, 2012

While Nanny Bloomberg harshes our sugar buzz, cool-guy Gov. Cuomo is telling the cops to go easy on marijuana.  Excellent move, Dude.

Kidding aside, Cuomo’s plan to decriminalize public possession of small amounts of pot is the opposite of dopey. It’s smart policy and smart politics at the same time.

The fact that the NYPD arrests more than 50,000 people a year for doing something that practically everyone under the age of 60 has at least tried — and knows full well to be no more dangerous than alcohol, and probably less so — is beyond ridiculous.

Thousands of young people are being handcuffed, fingerprinted, held behind bars and given permanent criminal records for an activity also perpetrated by at least four U.S. Presidents, not to mention infamous hippies Newt Gingrich and Clarence Thomas.

Cuomo himself has acknowledged smoking marijuana “in my youth.” When asked during his first mayoral campaign if he had tried pot, Bloomberg said: “You bet I did. And I enjoyed it.”

According to a new biography of President Obama by David Maraniss, the future leader of the free world and his friends made a point of closing the car windows when they toked up, so they could tilt their heads back and take “roof hits” when the joint was finished.

Yet none of these lawbreakers was caught. So none got turned down for a job or forfeited a student loan or, most tragically of all, lost custody of their children — all of which can and do happen to the mostly young, mostly black and brown New Yorkers swept up in the city’s modern-day reefer madness.

Compounding the injustice is the fact that New York supposedly decriminalized marijuana 35 years ago — when the Legislature downgraded private possession of up to 25 grams, or 7/8 of an ounce, to a mere violation, the equivalent of a traffic ticket.

Arresting people over pot “needlessly scars thousands of lives and wastes millions of dollars in law enforcement resources, while detracting from the prosecution of serious crime,” lawmakers declared at the time.

But that wise policy became collateral damage in the NYPD’s successful war for safe streets, as cops looked for any valid reason to confront and cuff people they suspected of crimes. Pot arrests went through the roof during the Giuliani years and stayed sky-high under Bloomberg — who has presided over more than 400,000 marijuana collars.

Clearly, in this case, the NYPD has taken numbers-driven enforcement too far.

Theoretically, the police are nabbing most of these people for possessing or smoking the dope in full public view, which is still a class B misdemeanor. In many, if not most, cases, however, the pot was harmlessly hidden from view until the owner was confronted during a stop-and-frisk — and an officer either searched the suspect or told him to empty his pockets.

"The Evolution of Cuomo’s Push to Lower Pot Arrests" By Ailsa Chang, WNYC News, June 05, 2012   (Also 5 minute radio news from NPR and broadcast on All Things Considered)

Under current law in New York, possessing a small amount of marijuana is only a crime if it's in public view.  On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo put his political muscle behind a bill that would make that a violation, not a crime ― meaning you only get a ticket and pay a fine. Cuomo's sudden announcement took many by surprise, but it was a decision that had been unfolding for months. Cuomo made the announcement backed by his own show of force — all five District Attorneys in New York City signed on, as did Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who was in Albany for the announcement.

 The WNYC investigation found the problem wasn't that marijuana was against the law — it was how the police were allegedly carrying out the law. More than a dozen men from the most heavily policed precincts told WNYC they were arrested for displaying marijuana in public view when their marijuana was actually hidden in their clothes. They claimed during a stop and frisk, police either ordered them to empty their pockets or pulled the marijuana out themselves before arresting them.  Cuomo touched on the issue at Monday’s announcement. “If you possess marijuana privately it’s a violation, if you show it in public it’s a crime,” Cuomo said. “It’s incongruous, it’s inconsistent the way it’s been enforced.”

Officer reaches into a pocket during a frisk in Brooklyn

Five months after WNYC’s investigation aired, Commissioner Kelly issued an internal order to the entire police department saying those kinds of arrests were not allowed under existing law. In the months that followed Kelly’s order, marijuana arrests declined, but not substantially — about 14 percent, according to state data. But the commissioner’s directive was a gift to Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn. He had already introduced his bill that would decriminalize possessing small amounts of marijuana in public view. “The directive from Commissioner Kelly gave us the opportunity to make a strong argument to the Governor that there is recognition of the flawed nature of these arrests by the police department itself,” Jeffries said at the time.

Levine says that racial disparity is no small deal, even if you're talking about summonses.  Even though studies show young whites smoke pot more, he notes, mostly young blacks and Latinos would be paying the hefty fines for marijuana in this city — about $100 per ticket.  And if they don't show up in court on the correct day to pay those fines, they could still be arrested.

Altering a Law the Police Use Prolifically, By Jim Dwyer, New York Times, June 5, 2012

This week, the governor and the speaker of the Assembly said they supported a change in the law so that publicly possessing small quantities of pot would no longer be a misdemeanor. “This is primarily a young-person problem, about 60 percent,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday. “And primarily, overwhelmingly, a problem for the black and brown community, 94 percent of the convictions.”

In a startling turnaround, both Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said that they supported the change in the law.

Under Mr. Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly, no other prohibition has been so vigorously enforced. About 400,000 people have been arrested over the last 10 years for breaking New York State Penal Law 221.10, which makes it a misdemeanor to openly possess or burn less than an ounce of pot.

For the last four years, I have asked the mayor’s office and the police commissioner why there has been an explosion of marijuana arrests among black and Latinos. Officials in those offices consistently, and ardently, defended the arrests as vital to public safety....

In 2009, John Feinblatt, a mayoral aide, said, “This continued focus on low-level offending has been part of the city’s effective crime-reduction strategy, which has resulted in a 35 percent decrease in crime since 2001.”

Last year, another aide, Frank Barry, said, “Marijuana arrests can be an effective tool for suppressing the expansion of street-level drug markets and the corresponding violence.”

What changed?

At the state level, Mr. Cuomo won passage of legislation to expand collection of DNA to include people charged with misdemeanors. He agreed, in exchange for the support of Democrats in the Assembly, to exempt people facing a first arrest in minor marijuana cases.

He also privately promised to fix a few lines in the laws governing marijuana possession, the changes he proposed this week. Currently, having a small quantity of pot is not a crime if it is not visible; it is merely a violation, like a traffic summons. However, if the pot is openly displayed, it is a misdemeanor. So, people ordered to turn out their pockets by a police officer are displaying marijuana, a misdemeanor.

Those misdemeanor charges, Mr. Cuomo said, were an “aggravated complication” of searches conducted in New York City. Last year, about 700,000 people were stopped, questioned, and in many cases, searched; most of those people were black and Latino.

Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly are under pressure over that practice, noted Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. A federal judge ruled last month that thousands of searches did not appear to be constitutional. The Legal Aid Society plans to sue the city over the marijuana arrests, said Steven Banks, the attorney in chief for the society, which provides many of the defense lawyers in New York’s criminal courts. The main police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, has said there are quotas for the number of stops, although the Police Department calls them performance goals.

Hakeem Jeffries, an assemblyman from Brooklyn, had urged the reforms proposed this week, which need the support of the State Senate to become law. “The possession of small quantities of marijuana is either a crime, or it’s not,” Mr. Jeffries said. “It cannot be criminal behavior for one group of people and socially acceptable behavior for another group of people, where the dividing line is race.”

"No Crime, Real Punishment"  New York Times Editorial, June 4, 2012

New York State decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana in the late 1970s. But last year, in New York City, 50,000 people — the majority of them, young African-American or Hispanic men — were still arrested for possession because of overzealous policing and a weakness in the law.

Decriminalizing public possession of small amounts of marijuana will address only part of that problem. For the sake of fairness and public safety, the stop-and-frisk program, which breeds fear and distrust of the police in minority neighborhoods, must be reformed.

"NY Gov. Cuomo Proposes Reducing Marijuana Penalty"  Associated Press and Washington Post, June 4, 2012

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday proposed cutting the penalty for public possession of a small amount of marijuana, a change in state law that would defuse some criticism of the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy in minority communities.

With three weeks remaining in the legislative session, Cuomo said his bill to reduce the criminal misdemeanor to a violation with a fine up to $100 would save thousands of New Yorkers, disproportionately black and Hispanic youths, from unnecessary arrests and criminal charges.

“There’s a blatant inconsistency. If you possess marijuana privately, it’s a violation. If you show it in public, it’s a crime,” Cuomo said. “It’s incongruous. It’s inconsistent the way it’s been enforced. There have been additional complications in relation to the stop-and-frisk policy where there’s claims young people could have a small amount of marijuana in their pocket, where they’re stopped and frisked. The police officer says, ‘Turn out your pockets.’ The marijuana is now in public view. It just went from a violation to a crime.”

New York City prosecutors and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, whose offices handled almost 50,000 such criminal cases last year, endorsed the Democratic governor’s plan. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the bill largely mirrors the city police directive issued last year for officers to issue violations, not misdemeanors, “for small amounts of marijuana that come into open view during a search.”

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said it will help them redirect limited resources to serious crime, and key Assembly Democrats expressed support. Some opposition is expected in the state Senate’s Republican majority, where a spokesman said they will review the measure once Cuomo submits it.

Possession of less than 25 grams was reduced in state law to a violation in 1977, subject to a ticket and fine. If the pot is burning or in public view, it rises to a misdemeanor that leads to an arrest. Cuomo’s proposal differs from pending Assembly and Senate bills because it leaves public pot smoking as a criminal misdemeanor.

Cuomo acknowledged the existing approach disproportionately affects minority youths, with 94 percent of arrests in New York City, more than half of those arrested younger than 25 and 82 percent either black or Hispanic.

Cuomo Wants to Decriminalize 'Public Display' of Marijuana, by Jacob Sullum, Reason.com, June 4, 2012

Responding to the bogus pot busts associated with the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is urging the state legislature to decriminalize the "public display" of marijuana. Although possessing up to 25 grams (nearly an ounce) of marijuana has been a citable offense similar to a traffic violation in New York since 1977, having marijuana "burning or open to public view" remains a Class B misdemeanor, justifying an arrest. Research by Queens College sociologist Harry Levine indicates that New York City police commonly convert the former offense into the latter by instructing people they stop to remove any contraband they have from their pockets or bags (or by removing it themselves in the course of a pat-down ostensibly aimed at discovering weapons). “Now it’s in public view,” Levine explains to The New York Times. “If you go by the police reports, all around New York City, there are people standing around with their palms outstretched with a bit of marijuana in them."

The bogus busts are especially outrageous because the stops that precede them, which supposedly are justified by "reasonable suspicion" of recent, ongoing, or imminent criminal activity, may be illegal as well.

Police officer reaches into a man's pocket on Broadway in Harlem. Photo by Jazz Hayden

"Plan to Reduce Pot Arrests" by Sean Gardiner, Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2012

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York City law-enforcement officials on Monday threw their support behind Gov. Andrew Cuomo's effort to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana in public view—a move proponents said would reduce the number of young minority men arrested.

Harry Levine, a Queens College professor who wrote a study on the city's low-level marijuana arrests, said he fears the proposal could allow police officers to save time on processing low-level marijuana arrests, allowing them to increase the number of violations issued."The 50,000 [marijuana] arrests could easily turn into 100,000 summonses with mandatory court appearances and everything else," he said. He said the summonses, which can have serious legal ramifications, shouldn't be equated to traffic tickets: "I'd say it is more like misdemeanor-lite."

"Cuomo Seeks Cut in Frisk Arrests"  By Thomas Kaplan, New York Times, June 3, 2012

Wading into the debate over stop-and-frisk police tactics, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo plans to ask legislators on Monday for a change in New York State law that would drastically reduce the number of people who could be arrested for marijuana possession as a result of police stops. The governor will call for the decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana in public view, administration officials said. Advocates of such a change say the offense has ensnared tens of thousands of young black and Latino men who are stopped by the New York City police for other reasons but after being instructed to empty their pockets, find themselves charged with a crime.

Reducing the impact of the Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy has been a top priority of lawmakers from minority neighborhoods, who have urged Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, to pay more attention to the needs of their communities. The lawmakers argue that young men found with small amounts of marijuana are being needlessly funneled into the criminal justice system and have difficulty finding jobs as a result....

“For individuals who have any kind of a record, even a minuscule one, the obstacles are enormous to employment and to education,” said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “When it’s really a huge number of kids in the community who go through this, and all have the same story, the impact is just devastating.”

The police in New York City made 50,684 arrests last year for possession of a small amount of marijuana, more than for any other offense, according to an analysis of state data by Harry G. Levine, a sociologist at Queens College.  The arrests continued — one in seven arrests made in the city was for low-level marijuana possession — even as Commissioner Kelly issued his directive.

Mr. Bloomberg has opposed ending arrests for the possession of small amounts of marijuana. His administration has argued that the arrests serve to reduce more serious crime by deterring drug dealing and the violence that can accompany the drug trade. A spokesman for the mayor declined to comment Sunday.

Mr. Cuomo plans to announce his support for the change at a news conference at the Capitol. While his push comes late in the year’s legislative session, which is scheduled to end June 21, the governor has been successful in his first 17 months in office at focusing attention on a limited number of legislative priorities and persuading lawmakers to address them quickly.

“This proposal will bring long overdue consistency and fairness to New York State’s Penal Law and save thousands of New Yorkers, particularly minority youth, from the unnecessary and life-altering trauma of a criminal arrest and, in some cases, prosecution,” an administration official said in an e-mail.

It would also save law enforcement “countless man-hours wasted” on arrests and prosecutions “for what is clearly only a minor offense,” the official added.

In New York, the Legislature in 1977 reduced the penalty for possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana to a violation, which carries a maximum fine of $100 for first-time offenders. But it remains a misdemeanor if the marijuana is in public view or is being smoked in public, and lawmakers and drug-reform advocates have argued that the misdemeanor charge is often unfairly applied to suspects who did not have marijuana in public view until the police stopped them and told them to empty their pockets.

“Now it’s in public view,” Professor Levine said. “If you go by the police reports, all around New York City, there are people standing around with their palms outstretched with a bit of marijuana in them.”

From 2002 to 2011, New York City recorded 400,000 low-level marijuana arrests, according to his analysis. That represented more arrests than under Mr. Bloomberg’s three predecessors put together — a period of 24 years. Most of those arrested have been young black and Hispanic men, and most had no prior criminal convictions.

Mr. Cuomo’s action comes after a number of state legislators and City Council members, many of them representing neighborhoods with large minority populations, have sought ways to force change at the Police Department.

"The Whole System Relies on These Arrests": The NYPD's Racist Marijuana Arrest Crusade And Its National Implications, By Alexander Zaitchik,  Alternet and American Independent News Network, May 15, 2012

Every morning, several sheets of paper are posted to the walls outside the arraignment rooms of New York City’s Borough Courts. They list the names of the accused scheduled to appear before the judge and the legal codes of their offenses. On most days and across the city’s five boroughs, these lists include multiple names next to the numbers 221.10. This is the legal code for the misdemeanor charge of possessing small amounts of marijuana “open to public view,” meaning the public display or public smoking of pot. In 2010, more than 50,000 New Yorkers were arrested for violating 221.10. The number represented 15 percent of all arrests made by the NYPD and allowed the city to keep its crown of Marijuana Arrest Capital of the World.

“The whole system relies on these arrests, which have been the most common arrest for NYPD for years,” says Jesse Levine. “It’s built into the system. Despite what [Police Chief] Ray Kelly may want us to believe, it’s not a superficial aspect of police policy, but their bread and butter up and down the chain.”

While privately possessing pot has been decriminalized for 35 years in New York, marijuana “in public view” -- burning or held visibly -- is an arrestable, finger-printable crime. What’s worse is that investigations by various news sources and academics alike have revealed that many of these kids deserve a much lesser charge.  During stop-and-frisks, researchers found, police often reach their hands into the pockets or bags of suspects. Sometimes they find marijuana, and while the charge should be a decriminalized possession, police charge suspects with the more serious offense of marijuana “in public view,” even though police had to search them to find it. Stop-and-frisk has increased by 600 percent since Bloomberg’s first year in office. 

Commissioner Kelly inadvertently admitted that police were making illegal marijuana arrests this fall, when he sent an internal memo to officers telling them to follow the law, and only arrest people for marijuana “in public view” if officers did not engage in action to put it there. But Kelly’s memo resulted in little change. Marijuana arrests dropped only 13 percent, and 2011 still saw more marijuana arrests than 2010. Last year, in fact, held the record for New York City’s second highest marijuana arrests in history. The pot arrest crusade cost New Yorkers an astounding $75 million.

City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito said that, despite Kelly’s internal order, “Unfortunately...When it comes to stop-and-frisks, of which marijuana arrests are a subset, we know that those numbers continue to rise.”  She said she is“deeply concerned” with the racial division in New York City policing, and that “We are here to express our outrage, not only as elected officials, but as constituents -- a community disproportionately affected by these racist policies”....

Bloomberg defends the stop-and-frisk tactic as a life-saving tool to prevent gun crimes. But critics point out that less than 2 percent of stop-and-frisks actually turn up guns, and say the consequences are not worth the so-called benefits. “Safety should not come at the expense of our constitutional rights,” said City Councilwoman Letitia James, “You should not designate young African Americans and Latinos ‘suspects.’” James said the NYPD has essentially declared a class war.

“We can no longer accept the price we are paying for a racially biased policing system,” said Kassandra Frederique, policy coordinator at the Drug Policy Alliance. “We can no longer allow our tax dollars to be used to criminalize young people of color -- there are better ways to teach our young people to not use marijuana. Today we are demanding that our elected officials fight for a united New York. Telling public officials that their silence speaks volumes and so do our votes. Let’s all work towards one New York where we are all treated with respect.”

Harry Levine, a Queens sociologist responsible for much of the data on racist policing, told AlterNet, “Roughly half of all stops result in frisks, and most of them require a full search,” adding that “The most shocking thing is how routinely police put their hands in people’s pockets -- the amount of blatantly unconstitutional, illegal searches of people’s clothing and possessions.”

Often, in New York, officers’ encounters with black and Latino communities go beyond street stops and into homes. Under Operation Clean Halls, officers are permitted to enter residential buildings, and question or arrest (often for bogus trespassing charges) whomever they want. What’s more, as Levine said at the rally, black and Latino youths are also much more likely to be arrested and ticketed for misdemeanor crimes like disorderly conduct and trespassing....

Activists said they will use the summer, and the months between now and elections in November, to draw attention to their case and rally New Yorkers to vote for a united New York. A silent march, inspired by the NAACP’s 1917 protest of young, brown and black people murdered in St. Louis, is planned for this Father’s Day, June 17. Chino Hardin, an organizer for Institute for Juvenile Justice Reform and Alternatives, warned legislators, “If you want us to be there in November, be there for us in June.”

Kelly and Bloomberg -- not individual police officers, organizers said -- are responsible for creating a New York in which skin color, gender, age, and class guarantee incredibly different realities. They call for the ousting of Kelly and Bloomberg, and for the election of New York City legislators willing to stand up against the policies that white civil disobedients called “the new Jim Crow.”

Officials from the Drug Policy Alliance say the allegedly racist practices of selective enforcement has created a "Tale of Two Cities" -- where white people get away scot free when caught with weed and black people are rounded up and thrown in jail.

The group says low-level marijuana arrests make up 15-percent of the total arrests made in the five boroughs, which makes marijuana possession the "number one offense" in New York. And those arrests -- and the clogging of the court system they create -- costs New York City $75 million a year.

"Stop Making Criminals Out of Young People"  by Edward Koch,  April 26, 2012