New York

hrmjustin

(71,265 posts) Tue May 27, 2014, 05:50 PM May 2014

Mayor de Blasio won't legalize marijuana despite pleas from activists and politicians to reduce mino

Mayor de Blasio won't legalize marijuana despite pleas from activists and politicians to reduce minor possession arrests

JENNIFER FERMINO AND CORINNE LESTCH

Legalizing marijuana may be weeded out of Mayor de Blasio's priorities, but elected officials and activists are calling on his administration to reduce the staggering number of minor possession arrests.

Arrests for pot possession dipped by 9% during the first quarter of 2014 compared to the same period last year, according to statistics released by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. But activists said the 7,017 low-level collars made in the first three months of 2014 means the city is still on track to reach roughly 30,000 arrests by the end of the year - the same number under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's last year in office.

Advocates also argue that the collars disproportionately affects blacks and Hispanics. Minorities accounted for 87% of marijuana arrests in the city in the first quarter of the year.

"The NYPD remains on track to match the same number of arrests for possession of small quantity of marijuana as compared to the final year of the Bloomberg administration," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries during a protest Tuesday calling for reform. "That is not the change that we expected."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/mayor-de-blasio-won-legalize-marijuana-pleas-activists-politicians-reduce-minor-possession-arrests-blog-entry-1.1807148#ixzz32xHr4tIG