Bloomberg Backs Plan to Limit Arrests for Marijuana

New York Times ^ | June 4, 2012 | Thomas Kaplan

[C19fan]

The New York Police Department, the mayor and the city’s top prosecutors on Monday endorsed a proposal to decriminalize the open possession of small amounts of marijuana, giving an unexpected lift to an effort by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to cut down on the number of people arrested as a result of police stops.

[JerseyHighlander]

Are you at all aware of the current screening process for the NYPD?

You can openly admit to repeated marijuana use in the application and not be DQ’ed, (and strangely enough) it doesn’t even lower the chance of getting hired at this point if you are a blood relative of another NYPD officer.

Granted the total number of applicants to the NYPD has spiked in this recession and the large number of war vets returned to the civilian workforce, making the entire hiring process much more selective in recent years.

I’ve known/know a good number of prior and current NYPD and MTA cops, none of them were saints.

[ansel12]

See what pot does to your brain, your made up statistics are ridiculous.

[JerseyHighlander]

The percentage of people busted on the frisk and search low level marijuana arrests who had active warrants out was under 16%. (From a recent NYPost article on the subject) And less than half of those get prosecuted for the other charges.

If 90% of the people arrested in NYC for stop and frisk low level marijuana charges had warrants, every bed in every prison in NY State would be filled to 200%+ capacity just on stop and frisk prosecutions.

So thanks for the hyperbole.

Here are the hard statistics on stop and frisk in the city:
http://www.nyclu.org/issues/racial-justice/stop-and-frisk-practices

In 2011, 685,724 New Yorkers were stopped by the police.
605,328 were totally innocent (88 percent).
350,743 were black (53 percent).
223,740 were Latino (34 percent).
61,805 were white (9 percent).
341,581 were aged 14-24 (51 percent).

An entire generation of youths in NYC now genuinely and passionately HATE the NYPD to the core of their beings due to the decade long constant harassment by stop and frisks. Every young minority guy in the city knows multiple people who have been harassed and humiliated publicly by the NYPD during these stop and frisks.

Another article with some relevant comments:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577221770752633612.html

[JerseyHighlander]

Seriously, as a possible recruit to the NYPD, you admit to prior drug use or being fired for disciplinary reasons at a prior job, all you do is take another piece of lined paper and write out an explanation of the situation. You then sit on a chair for 3 hours to wait your turn to get a piss test just like every other applicant.

If it isn’t for hard drugs or some serious issue for prior job termination, it has no affect on the recruiting process, and hasn’t since 2003ish. IF your urine is clean, the process continues.

[ansel12]

Definitely over 30% of street beat cops in NYPD have used marijuana, and it’s probably closer to 80% have used it.

No they haven't.

[SamuraiScot]

Same with weed on the street, in about 90 percent of the cases

Cite?

Smoke?

All kidding aside, in case there was some question, the "90 percent" refers to this:

Most small-use marijuana stops are winos and thugs, rather than white-knuckled, principled, Ron Paul-ites who talk about Ayn Rand, who are scarce in NYC.

. . . That proportion is empirically derived, and if you live or work in NYC, obvious.

[gdani]

...and if you live or work in NYC, obvious.

I used to live in NYC. My wife used to work around the corner from Wall Street.

We would talk about how Wall Street stunk like marijuana at 4-5pm on Fridays. One of her co-workers used to remark how much business the pot delivery people had in that area of the city & how much time they spent at/in office buildings.

Perhaps your knowledge of who all smokes marijuana in NYC is...limited.

[JerseyHighlander]

Depending on the study, 35% to 55% of NYC high school teens have used marijuana.
FOr late teens and early 20’s, depending on the study, 50% to 80% of NYC College students have used marijuana.

And that is only those who admit to it in the surveys by the NYC School system and questionnaires given on college campuses.

There are very few young cops in NYC who haven’t used marijuana.
There isn’t a NYPD street cop who is under 30 who doesn’t know friends and family members who are regular or casual recreational marijuana users.

In NYC, it is what it is, it is not all that different than what it was in the 1920’s, and it will probably be like that for quite a few more years going forward.

[microgood]

The change in safety for normal grown-ups—those not flying on drugs as they walk down the street—after Giuliani started these "public order" enforcement policies changed the city overnight. People started going out at night again, business boomed, hiring soared, etc.

While I admit I do not understand New York or its crime, I would never live somewhere where the police can approach any citizen without any cause and frisk them because they have some hunch about them. If they are committing a crime, fine, but if they are just walking down the street, the police should not be able to stop and search them without cause.

The ends do not justify the means here.

[ansel12]

Is this what passes as facts to lefties pushing drugs?

Until you find your cop stats you can quit bugging me, by the way used and tried is really two different things, you sound like a user, not someone who has tried it, or experimented with it.

[SamuraiScot]

We would talk about how Wall Street stunk like marijuana at 4-5pm on Fridays. . .

Perhaps your knowledge of who all smokes marijuana in NYC is...limited.

That does sound cute and special. But it's Wall Street that's "limited." Company cultures are (understandably) indulgent of their performers. As the Occupies would say, Wall Street is about 1 percent of the general NYC culture. In the stop-and-frisk parts of the city, say, Hell's Kitchen and Harlem, weed ain't just a Friday thing, baby.