Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
With about two weeks left before voters in the state decide whether to legalize marijuana, the NAACP's California chapter Friday released a report showing sharp racial disparities among people arrested for possessing pot.
"Arresting Blacks for Marijuana in California: Possession Arrests in 25 Cities," utilized California Department of Justice crime figures to show that while whites use marijuana at higher rates than blacks, African Americans are arrested far more often than whites for possessing pot.
"The report, which looks at three years of data ... indicates that this is not an anomaly but a consistent pattern, where African Americans are being arrested at two, four, 10, even 12 times the rates of whites" for marijuana possession, said Stephen Gutwillig, state director of the pro-Proposition 19 Drug Policy Alliance.
The study looked at marijuana arrest statistics for the 25 California cities where nearly half the state's 1 million African Americans live, finding sharp racial disparities among pot arrestees even in cities with large black populations.
In Pasadena, for instance, police arrested blacks for marijuana possession at 12.5 times the rate of whites. While blacks make up 11 percent of Pasadena's population, African Americans accounted for 49 percent of the people arrested for marijuana possession between 2006-09, the report showed.
In an e-mail, Pasadena Police Department Cmdr. John Perez said officials hadn't reviewed the findings Friday but plan on it.
"We will review this comprehensive report prepared by the NAACP and evaluate the information," he wrote. "We will also research our marijuana arrest statistics and compare the information with the report."
Perez said the department would provide a response to report "once we complete our research."
Meanwhile in Inglewood where blacks make up about 43 percent of the city more than 76 percent of those arrested for pot possession there were black, the study found.
Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP State Conference, denied a charge leveled Friday by the California Police Chiefs Association that report's release was timed to offset a voter poll this week that showed Proposition 19 trailing.
"I don't think we're losing at all," said Huffman, who joined actor Danny Glover and former Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders at a tele-news conference in Oakland.
She and other Prop. 19 supporters cited an "internal" campaign poll released Friday showing the measure was passing. Gutwillig said previous voter polls showing voters turning against 19 did not take African American voters into account.
Robert Rooks, director of criminal justice for the national NAACP, said the report was timed to be released in the closing weeks of the campaign. But he added the study was launched months ago.
"This report has been in preparation for months. It was timed to be released in the last weeks of the campaign, but it was not timed to any polls," he said.
He and others at the event said the study bears out a long-held belief that blacks are systematically targeted by law enforcement for drug arrests, resulting in disproportionately higher numbers of African Americans arrested for pot use.
Rooks called the laws against marijuana the "the foundation for racial profiling."
Report author Harry Levine of the sociology department at Queens College in New York concluded that, more than race, policing policies were largely responsible for the disparities.
Since police agencies tend to concentrate forces in areas perceived as having higher crime rates, which typically are low-income, minority communities, police are systematically "fishing" for arrests "in only some neighborhoods" and methodically searching "only some `fish."'
"This produces what has been termed `racism without racists,"' Levin stated in the report.
"We do not think the arrests are mostly a result of personal bias or racism on the part of individual police officers and their immediate supervisors. Rather, this is a system-wide phenomenon, occurring in cities and counties throughout California," the report said.
Huffman said she became involved in trying to change state drug policy long before Proposition 19, while serving as national chairwoman of the NAACP's criminal justice committee.
"When I saw the statistics that looked at the results of the war on drugs, I was appalled to find out that the war on drugs was being waged against our community. It was devastating our community. When Proposition 19 came along, I seized the moment," she said.
The stigma created by a drug arrest record can have long-lasting effects, making it harder for arrestees to land jobs, find housing or get student loans, the report states.
NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: pasadenastarnews.com
Author: Hector Gonzalez
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Newspaper group
Contact: Home - Pasadena Star-News
Website: NAACP report cites higher marijuana arrests for blacks vs. whites - Pasadena Star-News
"Arresting Blacks for Marijuana in California: Possession Arrests in 25 Cities," utilized California Department of Justice crime figures to show that while whites use marijuana at higher rates than blacks, African Americans are arrested far more often than whites for possessing pot.
"The report, which looks at three years of data ... indicates that this is not an anomaly but a consistent pattern, where African Americans are being arrested at two, four, 10, even 12 times the rates of whites" for marijuana possession, said Stephen Gutwillig, state director of the pro-Proposition 19 Drug Policy Alliance.
The study looked at marijuana arrest statistics for the 25 California cities where nearly half the state's 1 million African Americans live, finding sharp racial disparities among pot arrestees even in cities with large black populations.
In Pasadena, for instance, police arrested blacks for marijuana possession at 12.5 times the rate of whites. While blacks make up 11 percent of Pasadena's population, African Americans accounted for 49 percent of the people arrested for marijuana possession between 2006-09, the report showed.
In an e-mail, Pasadena Police Department Cmdr. John Perez said officials hadn't reviewed the findings Friday but plan on it.
"We will review this comprehensive report prepared by the NAACP and evaluate the information," he wrote. "We will also research our marijuana arrest statistics and compare the information with the report."
Perez said the department would provide a response to report "once we complete our research."
Meanwhile in Inglewood where blacks make up about 43 percent of the city more than 76 percent of those arrested for pot possession there were black, the study found.
Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP State Conference, denied a charge leveled Friday by the California Police Chiefs Association that report's release was timed to offset a voter poll this week that showed Proposition 19 trailing.
"I don't think we're losing at all," said Huffman, who joined actor Danny Glover and former Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders at a tele-news conference in Oakland.
She and other Prop. 19 supporters cited an "internal" campaign poll released Friday showing the measure was passing. Gutwillig said previous voter polls showing voters turning against 19 did not take African American voters into account.
Robert Rooks, director of criminal justice for the national NAACP, said the report was timed to be released in the closing weeks of the campaign. But he added the study was launched months ago.
"This report has been in preparation for months. It was timed to be released in the last weeks of the campaign, but it was not timed to any polls," he said.
He and others at the event said the study bears out a long-held belief that blacks are systematically targeted by law enforcement for drug arrests, resulting in disproportionately higher numbers of African Americans arrested for pot use.
Rooks called the laws against marijuana the "the foundation for racial profiling."
Report author Harry Levine of the sociology department at Queens College in New York concluded that, more than race, policing policies were largely responsible for the disparities.
Since police agencies tend to concentrate forces in areas perceived as having higher crime rates, which typically are low-income, minority communities, police are systematically "fishing" for arrests "in only some neighborhoods" and methodically searching "only some `fish."'
"This produces what has been termed `racism without racists,"' Levin stated in the report.
"We do not think the arrests are mostly a result of personal bias or racism on the part of individual police officers and their immediate supervisors. Rather, this is a system-wide phenomenon, occurring in cities and counties throughout California," the report said.
Huffman said she became involved in trying to change state drug policy long before Proposition 19, while serving as national chairwoman of the NAACP's criminal justice committee.
"When I saw the statistics that looked at the results of the war on drugs, I was appalled to find out that the war on drugs was being waged against our community. It was devastating our community. When Proposition 19 came along, I seized the moment," she said.
The stigma created by a drug arrest record can have long-lasting effects, making it harder for arrestees to land jobs, find housing or get student loans, the report states.
NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: pasadenastarnews.com
Author: Hector Gonzalez
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Newspaper group
Contact: Home - Pasadena Star-News
Website: NAACP report cites higher marijuana arrests for blacks vs. whites - Pasadena Star-News
