This is why it is not enough to stop arresting & prosecuting people for possession of weed. Until marijuana is legalized, police can still use it as a pretext to stop and search people and for traffic stops.
And the people they stop and search? Overwhelmingly, Black & Brown.
And the people they stop and search? Overwhelmingly, Black & Brown.
That is why the new non-enforcement policy announced by @NYCMayor a few months back was a lot of spin. It did something to address the inequities in arrest numbers & will hopefully prevent people ending up with criminal records.
Even there, there are so many exceptions, including for any "legitimate law enforcement reason" or for people whom the police deem a "threat" that as in any case where the police are given discretion there will be racism in the application of that discretion.
But what a lot of people don't understand is that marijuana laws have always functioned as a pretext for police to stop and search young Black & Brown people & for traffic stops. And they still do.
Here's an article from @theappeal where my public defender colleague @ScottHech and I talk about this.
theappeal.org/new-york-stop-…
theappeal.org/new-york-stop-…
The number of cases where smelling the "odor of marijuana" is the reason cited for a traffic stop is incredible. Police will be driving in a police vehicle on a highway & testify that they smelled the odor of marijuana coming from another vehicle also driving on the highway.
Here's a @nytimes article talking about the different ways police lie on the stand, including using "smelling the odor of marijuana" as a pretext for traffic stops. nytimes.com/2018/03/18/nyr…
The police used this as a pretext to search the car of my good friend, @YeshaCallahan's son's car. They never found marijuana. He and his friends had not been smoking marijuana. The cops lied. theroot.com/what-it-feels-…
See also, progress-index.com/news/20180301/…
In most cases where police use the "odor of marijuana" pretext for a search of a vehicle, they don't find marijuana.
Or this,
Short conclusion to a long thread - what exists in NYC now is not good enough. It is not "almost" legalization. It still works to penalize Black & Brown people, just in a more insidious way.
Oh & politicians who claim to be doing all of this in the name of ending racial disparities, when they're doing it b/c they know it is politically untenable not to do something on weed, but still want to be able to use the law as a pretext to harass Black & Brown people are foul.
PS. To everyone who is going to point out you should not be driving while under the influence of weed, of course not. Just as you should not be driving while under the influence of alcohol. Neither of these things are legal.
Legalizing marijuana will not make it legal to drive while under the influence of marijuana.
I am making 2 points.
I am making 2 points.
1. When police claim to smell the odor of marijuana, they are very often lying.
2. Police smelling the odor of marijuana should not justify a search of a vehicle, the same way smelling the odor of alcohol does not.
2. Police smelling the odor of marijuana should not justify a search of a vehicle, the same way smelling the odor of alcohol does not.
