The most arrests happen in poor neighborhoods and to young black or Latino men. A new report by the Drug Policy Alliance shows that Mayor Bill de Blasio has not been able to reduce race and class disparities in enforcing drug laws.
Mayor Bill de Blasio with John Miller, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, at a news conference on Oct. 14.
AP Manuel Balce Ceneta
NEW YORK CITY — The Upper East Side and East Harlem are only three subway stops apart in Manhattan. But if you live in the latter, you are 112 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession. You are also more likely to be poor, and black or Latino.
These race and class disparities in drug law enforcement extend across the city, according to a report published this week by the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates for reforms to current drug laws.
The group analyzed the cases of 15,324 people arrested by the New York Police Department for low-level marijuana possession charges between March to August of 2014. The DPA said its conclusions highlight how little has changed since the city elected a progressive administration that took office on Jan. 1 with promises to end discriminatory policing.
The DPA's analysis, based on data from the U.S. Census and the New York state Division of Criminal Justice Services, draws a map in which ethnically diverse neighborhoods in upper Manhattan and central Brooklyn see scores more arrests for marijuana possession than parts of the city where the majority of the residents are white. The 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that Latino and black people are less likely to use marijuana than white people.
Jeny Chang for BuzzFeed
The report drew a race and class distinction between the 20 police precincts with the highest rates of low-level marijuana possession arrests and the 20 precincts with the lowest rate.
The 20 precincts with the lowest rates — which include Park Slope in Brooklyn, Forest Hills in Queens, and the Upper West Side in Manhattan — average 39 marijuana possession arrests for every 100,000 residents, the report found. The 2.3 million residents in those neighborhoods are 24% black and Latino, 76% white and all other ethnicities. The average family income is $75,000.
The 20 neighborhoods with the highest rates average 498 possession arrests per 100,000 inhabitants. The 1.9 million people who live in those neighborhoods — which include Washington Heights in Manhattan, East New York in Brooklyn, and the Far Rockaways in Queens — are on average 89% black and Latino, 11% white and all other ethnicities. The average family income is $34,000.
The rate of low-level marijuana arrests in poorer neighborhoods — where most residents are black or Latino — was on average 12 times higher than in neighborhoods where residents tend to be affluent and white, the DPA report found. In some cases, as in East Harlem and the Upper East side, the rate was 100 times higher.
Poor neighborhoods of color also tend to have higher rates of arrest for other, more serious crimes. Still, the DPA found that 74% of people arrested for marijuana possession weren't previously convicted of any misdemeanors or felonies, suggesting the people accused of serious crimes are not the same as those being arrested for low-level drug offenses.
from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://www.buzzfeed.com/nicolasmedinamora/top-neighborhoods-to-get-arrested-for-pot-possession-in-new?utm_term=4ldqpia
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