In every one of the 25 largest counties in California, blacks are arrested for marijuana possession at higher rates than whites, typically at double, triple or even quadruple the rate of whites.
U.S. government studies consistently find that young blacks use marijuana at lower rates than young whites.
In Los Angeles County, with nearly ten million residents and over a quarter of California's population, blacks are arrested at over triple the rate of whites. Blacks are less than 10 percent of L.A. County’s population, but they are 30 percent of the people arrested for marijuana possession.
These racially-biased marijuana arrests are a system-wide phenomenon, occurring in every county and nearly every police department in California, and elsewhere. The arrests are not mainly the result of personal bias or racism on the part of individual patrol officers – who are doing what they are assigned to do.
Marijuana possession arrests have serious consequences. They create permanent "drug arrest" records that can be easily found on the Internet by employers, landlords, schools, credit agencies, licensing boards, and banks.
The "scarlet letter" stigma of criminal records for marijuana possession can create barriers to employment and education for anyone, including whites and middle class people.
Criminal records for marijuana possession severely limit the life chances of the poor, the young, and especially of young blacks and Latinos.
So WHY is this the case? I'll let the study take over (emphasis on what needs to be changed is mine):
"Based on our studies of policing in New York and other cities, we do not think the arrests are mostly a result of personal bias or racism on the part of individual patrol officers and their immediate supervisors. Rather, this is a system-wide phenomenon, occurring in every county and nearly every police department in California and elsewhere. Police departments deploy most patrol and narcotics police to certain neighborhoods, usually designated 'high crime.' These are disproportionately low-income, and disproportionately African-American and Latino neighborhoods. It is in these neighborhoods where the police make most patrols, and where they stop and search the most vehicles and individuals, looking for 'contraband' of any type in order to make an arrest. The item that young people in any neighborhood are most likely to possess, which can get them arrested, is a small amount of marijuana. In short, the arrests are racially-biased mainly because the 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.'"
You know, it was suggested by a (White) friend of mine (this may be too complicated of a thought, seriously) that...maybe the police could just search the neighborhoods more evenly, and not fish? Just an unreasonable thought, I know.
Another suggestion comes from the leaders of the California NAACP; they want to borrow a page from Peter Tosh's book (album, actually) and "Legalize It." Of course, that would make cops find something new to fish out young minorities for...
So what happens when many of these minorities from low-income neighborhoods get arrested? They pay a fine of $100, plus court costs, admit guilt to a misdemeanor, or they can't afford to pay and get jailed. Either way is tough to recover from, because...
"Twenty years ago, misdemeanor arrest and conviction records were papers kept in court storerooms and warehouses, often impossible to locate. Ten years ago they were computerized. Now they are instantly searchable on the Internet for $20 to $40 through commercial criminal-record database services. Employers, landlords, credit agencies, licensing boards for nurses and beauticians, schools, and banks now routinely search these databases for background checks on applicants. The stigma of criminal records can create barriers to employment and education for anyone, including whites and middle class people. Criminal drug arrest and conviction records can severely limit the life chances of the poor, the young, and especially young African Americans and Latinos."
Continuing on...
"At some arraignment courts, people are played a video tape that introduces the arraignment process and says they can have their conviction record 'expunged.' Those who return to court to do so learn they have to file their own expungement petition with a $120 filing fee. Unless they speak to an attorney, most people are not told that, contrary to popular belief, an expungement does not erase a criminal record – it merely changes the finding of 'guilty' to a 'dismissal.' The criminal record simply states that the case was dismissed after conviction. So, although people can legally say that they have not been convicted of a crime, they still have a 'rap sheet,' and a simple background check will show they were arrested and convicted.
A criminal record lasts a lifetime. The explosive growth of criminal record databases, and the ease with which those databases can be accessed on the Internet, creates barriers to employment, housing and education for anyone simply arrested for drug possession. As a result, a misdemeanor marijuana arrest in California has serious consequences for anyone, including white, middle class, and especially young people.
For young, low-income African Americans and Latinos – who use marijuana less than young whites, and who already face numerous barriers and hurdles – a criminal record for the 'drug crime' of marijuana possession can seriously harm their life chances. Some officials, such as U.S. Representatives Steve Cohen and Sheila Jackson Lee, have termed the stigmatizing effect of criminal records for marijuana possession a modern 'scarlet letter.' These marijuana possession arrests, which target young, low-income Californians, serve as a 'head start' program for a lifetime of unemployment and poverty."
And this, my friends, is how you continue a system that has a reasonably efficient way of keeping us down.
Police targeting: A systematically, institutionally biased way why...America is Racist!
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