Marijuana arrests point to racial bias
Is it simply a consequence of criminal activity or does it signify something sinister about crime fighters?
Something more than mere criminal activity underlies the extraordinarily high numbers of marijuana possession arrests among Blacks in Philadelphia.
Across Pennsylvania, whites accounted for 58 percent of the marijuana possession arrests in 2008, according to the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Report covering that year.
Yet, in Philadelphia during 2008, Black males accounted for 82.8 percent of the 4,716 adults snatched up for smoking pot (not selling it) according to statistics culled from Pa.’s 2008 UCR by the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
Blacks and whites account for about equal proportions of Philadelphia’s population — 43 percent and 45 percent respectively, according to the 2000 Census count.
Further, studies consistently show that illegal drug usage among whites exceeds usage among Blacks — with marijuana being America’s most widely used illicit street drug.
Given parity in percentages of population and pot usage, is it intellectually honest to assert that race neutral rationales explain Philadelphia’s enormous emphasis on arresting Black males for marijuana possession?
There’s certainly nothing race neutral about another alarming fact compiled by Philly’s NORML chapter from Pa.’s 2008 UDC.
Black women in Philadelphia endured pot possession arrests during 2008 at a rate three times higher than white females.
In Philadelphia during 2008, “just 90 white women” got arrested compared to “345 Black women arrested for the same offense,” stated a Philly NORML examination released two months ago, noting the critical context of several studies showing that “Black and white women choose cannabis at near equal rates.”
Contrasting sharply with Philly’s race-stained pot arrest rates, possession arrests in Pa.’s capital city of Harrisburg appear proportional to demographics. Blacks comprise 55 percent of Harrisburg’s population and the 2008 pot possession arrest figures there were 2-to-1: 201 Blacks v. 104 whites.
Derrick Rosenzweig, secretary of Philly NORML, sees police practices tipping scales on what should be pot possession arrest rates balanced proportionally with demographics in Philadelphia.
“Police in Philadelphia like to use marijuana arrests to search for other crimes. It’s racially biased,” Rosenzweig said during an interview last week.
“Philadelphia NORML and the ACLU are awaiting a report from the Philadelphia Police Department to see what happens with marijuana arrests,” Rosenzweig continued. “How many people receive 30 days in jail and a fine as permitted by law for possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana?”
Race based disparities in pot possession arrests documented by Pennsylvania’s UCR is a subject likely for scrutiny by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams.
“We have a new Performance and Policy Unit and they will probably examine that,” Williams’ Media Director Tasha Jamerson said during a recent interview.
Philly’s pot enforcement policies burned their way onto the public agenda last week with announcement of reforms in local court procedures providing common sense solutions to problems in a court system too often mired in operational inefficiencies.
One of the reforms advanced by Pa. Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille, Court Justice Seamus McCaffery and District Attorney Williams streamlines how Philly handles pot possession arrests, seeking to unclog a clogged court system by processing this minor crime differently.
This reform brings Philadelphia in line with many municipalities around Pennsylvania that treat simple marijuana possession as a summary offense instead of a stiffer misdemeanor crime.
Currently, persons in Philadelphia arrested for possession are handcuffed, fingerprinted, mug-shot, detained, required to post bail to get out of jail before facing a preliminary hearing and other lengthy court proceedings.
The reform cuts costly procedure by eliminating the preliminary hearing and other proceedings, replacing what normally is multiple court appearances with one court proceeding.
“There are tremendous cost savings,” said District Attorney Spokesman Jamerson.
“Preliminary hearings are like mini-trials and they are often continued,” Jamerson explained. “Everyone must show up at this hearing, police, the defendant, the defendant’s attorney, an assistant district attorney and witnesses. Police are paid overtime and are off the streets. Delays are costly.”
Examinations Philly NORML conducted discovered Philadelphia spending between $500-to-$1,000 for processing the pre-trial portion of each pot possession arrest. These costs total millions annually.
Irrespective of the planned reforms in processing pot possession arrests, getting caught still exposes offenders to a maximum of 30-days in jail and a fine up to $500.
“This is not decriminalization of marijuana,” reminds Jamerson, seeking to correct misperceptions that the changes altered the illegal status of marijuana.
NORML’s Rosenzweig terms the reforms a definite “baby step” forward, however, his organization remains hopeful that Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the entire U.S. will legalize the substance now costing governments billions of dollars each year to keep illegal.
“We support all forms of legalizations,” Rosenzweig said plugging his organization’s annual “Philadelphia Cannabis March” on May 1 along South Street.
In 1972, a White House commission appointed by then U.S. President Richard Nixon and headed by a former Republican Pennsylvania governor, recommended decriminalization of marijuana after concluding marijuana did not constitute “a danger to public safety” — a recommendation Nixon angrily rejected.
A poll published by The Philadelphia Tribune in February 1972 founded a majority of local Blacks quizzed answering “yes” to the question: Do you think marijuana should be legalized?
Now decades after Tricky-Dick Nixon declared his war-on-weed, evidence overwhelmingly documents the enormous financial and social waste comprising continued woefully ineffective and racially discriminatory pot prohibition.
Linn Washington Jr. is an award-winning writer who teaches journalism at Temple University.
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