See the article in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/nyregion/legalization-marijuana-new-jersey.html

The people pushing expungement say that African-American and Latino communities have been convicted of drug charges at a higher rate than other races.  One researcher claims that a black person has a 50% higher chance of being arrested and convicted of possessing marijuana than a white person for the same crime.

So, to legalize marijuana in New Jersey, do they have to reward criminals?

The movement in the legislature is not a free “get out of jail” card.  For instance, the person who wants an expungement must prove they have not been arrested and/or convicted of a drug charge for at least ten years prior.

And many states which have passed laws to legalize marijuana also recognize the race-based higher rates of convictions for Blacks and Latinos.  But have not tied the legalization of pot to those statistical facts.

I worked for over 40 years as both a prosecutor and defense lawyer. I handled thousands of drug cases.  Politicians and groups who have pushed for harsher sentencing for drug offenders claim the purpose is to catch the kingpins. That will stop the sales on the street.  In my experience, that’s the opposite of what actually happens.  The people pulled into the system are the lowest-level users. They sell a little in order to pay for their own use.  Rarely, are the big shots caught.

Since the 70’s, the “war on drugs” has given us jails bursting with low-level drug offenders.  The majority of them are men of color.  Some argue that segments of the communities of color commit more crimes.  Others argue that the entire system is, obviously, racist and unfair.

Whichever side you may agree with the fact remains that too many people are in prison for possession of drugs. There are other ways to handle these cases.  If you have a felony on your record  it’s almost impossible to get a decent job.  That forces many felons to go back into the drug trade to support families.

Should we legalize marijuana and include the expungement of the records of prior felons?

New Jersey has not passed the law yet.  It’ll be interesting to see if they do and what the outcome will be.  It seems like the expanding effort in the U.S. to consider the wisdom of making many drugs illegal may need to be re-thought.

What do you think?

The post Legalize Marijuana—and Reward Criminals? appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.

So far, the basis for this idea that African Americans are killed by police at a higher percentage of their population is anecdotal.  Here’s an example: almost every Black man I know has a story of being arrested by the police and being very scared.  Although I’ve been stopped by police for several traffic issues, I never felt scared and perhaps, I have not been stopped as often as my black, male friends.  I’m going to assume this is true (people of color are stopped more often than whites) —at least for now.  When you read the editorial you may change your mind.  That fact leads many of us to conclude that killings of black offenders by police is also higher than is the case in the white criminal community.

Heather MacDonald is a smart, well educated (Yale and Stanford Law School), journalist who has actually done some empirical research to investigate the truth behind our assumptions of police conduct and racism.  She concludes that maybe cops aren’t all racist.  In her book, The War on Cops  https://www.amazon.com/War-Cops-Attack-Order-Everyone/dp/1594038759/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482367510&sr=1-1&keywords=heather+macdonald+war+on+cops, she argues that the actual numbers show a very different picture.  For instance, she claims that in white/Hispanic homicides, 12% are caused by police.  In African American homicides, only 4% are caused by police.  Does this prove that cops aren’t racist?

So why are more black people stopped for traffic offenses and other petty crimes?  Is this still racism?

Many police departments now use a data-driven approach to fighting crime.  For instance, they may use a tool called ComStat in which police target high crime areas and put more patrols in those neighborhoods and, therefore, end up stopping more people.  And for whatever reasons, African American neighborhoods tend to have higher crime rates—which would trigger ComStat to direct more police onto the streets there.  Does this explain why more arrests are made in these communities?  Or do we come back to police racism again?

Of course, it’s not an easy question to answer.  At least Ms. MacDonald has attempted to clear-up some of the fog by researching and reporting her numbers.  I think it’s worth considering.

What do you think?

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