NYC Weed Arrests Often Stem From Illegal Searches, Almost Always of Blacks or Latinos

By Joe Coscarelli Tue., Apr. 26 2011 at 3:07 PM

"The NYPD's Secret Crusade Against Marijuana Furthers a Racist Agenda," wrote Nat Hentoff in the pages of the Village Voice back in 2008. A report this year claimed the city spends $75 million annually on low-level marijuana arrests -- 350,000 people between 2002 and 2010 alone, enough to make New York City the marijuana arrest capital of the world. Today, a new WNYC investigation puts more journalism behind something most New Yorkers already know: the NYPD's arrests for marijuana possession overwhelmingly target people of color and the searches that reveal the drugs are often being carried out illegally.

WNYC reports that of the 140 people locked up daily, "thousands of these arrests take place when police stop-and-frisk young men in the poorest neighborhoods," demonstrated in the map above. As importantly, individuals' constitutional rights are likely being violated.

Nearly 90 percent of marijuana arrests in NYC are people of color, while "national studies show young whites between 18 to 25 years old smoke pot more than non-whites that age." State law says that possessing pot is only a misdemeanor crime, as opposed to a violation (which is not a crime), if it is being used or "open to public view."

Here's an anecdote that probably gets to a larger issue:

Antonio Rivera, 25, said he gets stopped by police up to five times a month. In January, he said he was stopped and frisked near the corner of E. 183rd Street and Creston Avenue in the Bronx. He was arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession. ...

Rivera said his marijuana was in his pants and that police pulled it out of his clothes after searching him without his consent.
...
Rivera had lodged a soft Ziploc bag of marijuana between his legs inside his pants while still in the room where he bought it. He said he never took the drugs out when he went outside, but the police officer who arrested him told prosecutors Rivera was openly displaying his drugs.

In the criminal complaint against Rivera, the arresting officer stated that he "observed the defendant to have on his person, in his right hand 1 ziplock bag containing a dried-green leafy substance with the distinctive odor alleged to be marijuana in public view."

Ostensibly, stop-and-frisks are meant to address illegal gun possession. An NYPD spokesperson explained, "If an officer conducted an improper search, he is instructed on how to do it properly; unless it was particularly egregious in which case he would face more severe disciplinary action."

WNYC counted over a dozen men with similar tales as Mr. Rivera above, but without videotape, it becomes their story versus the NYPD. But we'll let the lawyer Robin Steinberg have the last word:

"When enough people tell a story in the same way, with the same facts and the same circumstances over and over again - completely different people from different neighborhoods and different backgrounds - you begin to understand that that chorus of voices reflects a reality."

Read the whole report and listen to the audio of the WNYC program here.

[jcoscarelli@villagevoice.com / @joecoscarelli]

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ere

I've been stopped and frisked multiple times, esp. when I was a teenager, even had a shotgun pulled on me. After being searched and finding nothing, just let me go with no apologies.

Just recently experienced a stop and frisk equivalent on the highway: state trooper came out of nowhere and pulled me and my nephew over (we weren't speeding) asking questions on where we were going, whose car it is, are we carrying illegal weapons, drugs, etc (we weren't). After responding to all his questions, he still felt compelled to call the border patrol and and search the car with K-9 dogs. They found nothing, of course, and the state trooper, cited us for having tinted windows, which I thought was trumped-up since the rear and side windows are slightly tinted, protection for the sun glare, and are legal, no apologies and just let us go with the ticket for tinted windows.

Anyway, what can I say, this has been happening before, and it'll keep happening still, as long as the majority of the police force are white, esp. nowadays that they are looking for illegal immigrants and terrorists. They think that all non-white are guilty of something, until proven innocent or otherwise. So, that's the U.S. of A for you; only country where they treat its non-white citizens as criminals.

Flowjason

I am a 30 year old black professional from the South Bronx. Never smoked. But one thing I have in common with this story is the illegal searches I have encountered many times as a teenager. All were from plain clothes detectives. But I never knew it was illegal or if I can do anything about them.

Evan Goldstein

The Drug Policy Alliance and the Institute for Juvenile Justice Reforms and Alternatives are offering free Know Your Rights trainings in communities that are most impacted by stop and frisk practices (click on the link for more info) <https: spreadsheets.google.com="" viewform?formkey="dFpnS3JhVTFiekN1b3d5NFdINjJiVHc6MQ">.

You can also called the Civilian Complaint Review Board to file a complaint, even as a witness. You can best contact them through 311.</https:>

Mrblonde47

My name is Anthony Ponzio, I'm not trying to hide behind anonymity.

I just want to ask one question: Because there are literally 1,000's of students who, on a daily basis, claim that 'my computer froze' or 'I left the paper home' or 'I forgot about the assignment' - does that automatically "reflect a reality," as attorney Robin Steinberg asserted?

Listen, I know there are plenty of dousche-baggy cops out there, but is it really a stretch to imagine that a majority of the suspects being arrested are lying about having the marijuana concealed?

I mean, it's got to be the guy with the badge who's making things up right? Not the guy with the drugs who stands to go to prison...he's got no reason to lie.

This article is pretty terrible journalism with an absolute slant...where's the objectivity?

I smoke pot, I often carry it with me, so please don't think of me as a drug-hater with a grudge. It just sort of confuses me as to why it's okay to assume that cops lie but not the crooks.

Like Red said, he must be the only guilty man in Shawshank.

A1773921

Many of the criminals probably do lie. On the other hand, the NYPD is currently in the middle of a scandal involving possibly hundreds of officers making citations for friends and family disappear. So we can't assume the police perfectly honest and are guaranteed to be telling the truth... Also, as you said, the criminal is facing jail-time. On the other hand, it sounds like many, or at least some, of the searches are unconstitutional (see Flowjason below) in that a black guy walking down the street doesn't constitute reasonable suspicion, so the police themselves would be facing lawsuits (or they could not stop as many people, in which case they'd be facing sanctions for not meeting performance).

So that leaves us with 2 possible stories that may or may not be true. On the one hand, we have the police story, which reads as though he observed a man walking down the street carrying a big, obvious baggie of pot. From that we can gather that the guy with pot is a complete idiot who didn't stop to think that openly displaying pot could get him arrested. On the other hand you have the criminal's story, which extends a commonly used police tactic (an officer tells a suspect that if they hand over the pot, they'll be lenient, then they arrest them when they "publicly display" it to the officer) into modifying a search that was questionably legal ("reasonable suspicion") into totally legal (the "visible bag" provided "probable cause" for a search and seizure). A small, procedural change that most likely would never be uncovered (sort of like making citations disappear...).

I'm not saying that the NYPD, and police in general, are untrustworthy. I am, however, saying they have a long history of playing fast and loose with the law when drugs are involved (http://www.washingtonpost.com/.... And they aren't doing anything to gain back our trust with all the illegal, under-the-table activities (like ticket-fixing) that they are also engaged in (and which they continually try to downplay by telling us it's not a big deal, we've always done that...).

As a side note, I do like my anonymity, but it's not because I smoke pot (which I haven't in far longer than the statute of limitations). It's a personal choice.