Thread by @ScottHech

🚨RIGHT NOW: NY is on cusp of finally legalizing marijuana. But there's a hold up. Gov. Cuomo is *insisting* cops still get to claim an "odor" to justify racist searches. Public defenders know that the "odor of marijuana" drives broken windows policing. No!nytimes.com/2019/09/12/nyr…

NY Judge in 2019: "The time has come to reject the canard of marijuana emanating from nearly every vehicle subject to a traffic stop. So ubiquitous has the claim become that it should be subject to a heightened level of scrutiny if it is to supply the grounds for a search.”

"One woman who served on a grand jury in Brooklyn recalled hearing officers in 2 separate cases claim to have 'detected a strong odor of marijuana' and use it as justification for a stop or a search. 'They said it very formulaically.'"

"Several officers said they had doubts their colleagues consistently told the truth about what they had smelled. 'Certain cops will say there is odor of marijuana, and when I get to the scene, I immediately don’t smell anything,' one Bronx officer, Pedro Serrano, said."

Also an accountability issue: Cops who lie about marijuana odor to search do not get fired even after judges find they lie. I wrote about how in one case, the *same* prosecutor relied on the same team of officers in another hearing just a few months later. nytimes.com/2019/09/25/opi…

The only way you are going to get closer to fair, non-racist, truthful policing in NYC is to make it IMPOSSIBLE for police to arrest people for marijuana or use marijuana to violate people's rights. Legalization without any ability to use "odor" to search is the only option.

Even if the NYPD actually stopped arresting everyone for marijuana, criminalization of marijuana alone would continue to drive broken windows policing. The claimed odor/observation of marijuana would continue to give officers pretext to violate the rights of communities of color.

Even though NYC claims to have stopped arresting people for possession, (a) it's not true & (b) the claimed "odor of marijuana" continues to drive racist broken windows policing. Racial disparities have only increased. Continued damage done. Saw it as a PD.

https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1138871604304392192?s=20

Advocates, organizers, community members, people w/ direct experience have been fighting FOR YEARS for marijuana justice. Not just decriminalization (that happened in the 1970s). Not just legalization (a flood of major marijuana business thriving while leaving communities behind)

What is Marijuana Justice? The Marijuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA). Expunges criminal records. Equity in new industry. Direct resources to small-businesses. Tax revenue to communities pummeled by criminalization. Ends odor of marijuana as justification for stop and frisk.

NY has the opportunity to become a national leader in #marijuanajustice and economic justice. To do legalization right for the first time in our nation's history.

Take action: Tell @nygovcuomo, @CarlHeastie, & @AndreaSCousins to #PassTheMRTA today. p2a.co/qxx22LW