Brooklyn Officially Stops Targeting and Arresting for Marijuana Possession
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By Barry Bard on July 9, 2014 Law & Politics, Marijuana Laws
What a pro-legalization campaign for Weedmaps would have looked like in Times Square
Eight months after declaring his intention to cease low-level marijuana arrests, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson will make good on his word. Late Tuesday, Thompson’s office announced that the new tactic towards pot possession will go into effect immediately.
Policemen in New York’s traditionally toughest borough on marijuana will no longer target, cuff, or jail individuals carrying small amounts of marijuana (25 grams or less). While police officers in Brooklyn can still hand out citations and fines, the goal for Brooklyn’s finest is to utilize their hours and manpower towards real crime and real criminals.
While most people in Brooklyn can now safely carry carry pot without stress and far, there are a few caveats.
The policy described in a memo dated Tuesday still offers plenty of exceptions: Only those with no criminal records, or minimal ones, qualify, and the cases of people caught smoking in public spaces — and especially around children — will not automatically be thrown out.
The implementation comes three months after the district attorney’s office drafted a confidential memorandum outlining its plans in April. According to the New York Times, the New York Police Department did not receive the memorandum well, which led to the delay and internal debate.
Thompson and his office clearly came out on top but also made some concessions so as to not completely undermine the NYPD.
“The policy does not undermine the authority of the police to enforce the law,” the memo read. “This office respects the officers of the New York City Police Department.” [NYTimes]
But the district attorney’s memo makes it clear they will indeed cease stop-and-frisks while not making anyone carrying under 25 grams of weed a priority. The goal is simple and twofold: save money and stop putting stoners in jail:
“the district attorney has a duty to reform and improve the administration of justice, not merely to convict.”
For Brooklynites, that means the borough’s whopping 12,000 marijuana arrests in 2012 will drastically decrease and that Brooklyn’s once racist cannabis laws (blacks were nine times as likely as whites to get arrested) should finally come to an end.
It can’t be a coincidence that the decision to implement this new, relaxed policy comes a mere week after New York became America’s 23rd medical marijuana state. As the world looks to New York for many things, hopefully this sane policy on the possession of cannabis will set an example for elsewhere.
source
http://marijuana.com/news/2014/07/brooklyn-of...ossession/
