In.A.Dash.Media

Observations from ‘The War on Weed’ documentary on Vanguard. There have been more marijuana arrests under Bloomberg’s administration than the last 3 administrations combined. ‘Stop and Frisk’ led to these 400,000 arrests. ‘Furtive movements’ (suspicious, shifty movements) are grounds for a Stop and Frisk. Black and Latino men are usually stopped and frisked, nine times as often, some on a daily basis. Marijuana was decriminalized in 1977. Minor marijuana possession charges require public view, once someone is stopped and asked to empty their pockets anything they have in their pockets, including marijuana is now in ‘public view.’ 57 of 126 cases on docket on a single court day was for marijuana. Police aren’t supposed to reach into people’s pockets to look for drugs and they can’t legally force people to empty their pockets. “The paperwork” doesn’t indicate these popular stop and frisk methods. Reporter asked why don’t cops ‘Stop and Frisk’ in Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights? Legal aid lawyer said “they’d never do it those areas, because there’s not that many Black and Latino kids there, the community would be up in arms and the community’s a powerful community.”