1 pot arrest per minute in 2013, FBI reports
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
The FBI released its Uniform Crime Report for 2013 today, and finds that about one marijuana possession arrest occurred per minute last year, for a total of 609,423 arrests in 2013.
America spends an estimated $3.6 billion per year on these arrests, none of which lower the availability or popularity of pot, the American Civil Liberties Union finds.
Police spent more time and resources arresting people for drugs than they did arresting rapists, murderers, pedophiles, or any other offense in the UCR. Of those drug arrests, marijuana possession arrests comprised the majority. Forty-one percent of all drug arrests in 2013 were for marijuana possession, a substance the President says is less harmful than alcohol.
... These arrests are also racially biased, the American Civil Liberties Union has found. Marijuana use is roughly equal among African-Americans and whites, yet African-Americans are 3.73 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession.
Read more: http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2014/11/10/what-a-waste-1-pot-arrest-per-minute-in-2013-fbi-reports/
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)dotymed
(5,610 posts)most of my friends know that cops have the best weed.Many, at least those from my generation, enjoy it. They seize it from scared teenagers who are more than happy if they don't get prosecuted, to hand it over. A lot of the cops still arrest people for pot, just some of it never makes it to the evidence room....They think it is hilarious.
I think they are assholes to arrest people for doing something they view as harmless.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)The seminars offered police officers some useful tips on seizing property from suspected criminals. Dont bother with jewelry (too hard to dispose of) and computers (everybodys got one already), the experts counseled. Do go after flat screen TVs, cash and cars. Especially nice cars.
In one seminar, captured on video in September, Harry S. Connelly Jr., the city attorney of Las Cruces, N.M., called them little goodies. And then Mr. Connelly described how officers in his jurisdiction could not wait to seize one mans exotic vehicle outside a local bar.
A guy drives up in a 2008 Mercedes, brand new, he explained. Just so beautiful, I mean, the cops were undercover and they were just like Ahhhh. And he gets out and hes just reeking of alcohol. And its like, Oh, my goodness, we can hardly wait.
Mr. Connelly was talking about a practice known as civil asset forfeiture, which allows the government, without ever securing a conviction or even filing a criminal charge, to seize property suspected of having ties to crime. The practice, expanded during the war on drugs in the 1980s, has become a staple of law enforcement agencies because it helps finance their work. It is difficult to tell how much has been seized by state and local law enforcement, but under a Justice Department program, the value of assets seized has ballooned to $4.3 billion in the 2012 fiscal year from $407 million in 2001. Much of that money is shared with local police forces... more
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025795206
msongs
(67,453 posts)jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/the-police-are-still-out-of-control-112160.html
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)driving drunk and killing innocent people, shooting children while drunk, but "put those pot smokers in jail.....geez.... Amerika is a backwards society/culture. Stupid, in fact.