These policy's are disgusting in their insidious nature. The man has shattered lives. Words fail me to adequately decribe what he has done to so many.
The man is on a war against marijuana
In 2010 New York City spent $75 million arresting people for possessing small amounts of marijuana.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/...
the waste in money is only ancillary to the true evil behind his polices.
there is a lot to read here, but it is shines a light on his wretched true self.
2010 NYC Marijuana Arrest Numbers Released: 50,383 New Yorkers Arrested for Possessing Small Amounts of Marijuana
Marijuana Possession Offenses are #1 Arrest in NYC, Comprise 15% of All Arrests; Majority of Those Arrested Are Black and Latino Youth
This dramatic rise in marijuana arrests is not the result of increased marijuana use, which peaked nationally around 1980 according to data collected by the U.S. government. Over the last twenty years, NYPD has quietly made arrests for marijuana their top enforcement priority, without public acknowledgement or debate. This is the sixth year in a row with an increase in marijuana possession arrests. In 2005, there were 29,752 such arrests, and in 2010, there were 50,383, a 69 percent increase. Since Michael Bloomberg came into office in 2002, there have been 350,000 arrests for low-level marijuana offenses in NYC.
"New York has made more marijuana arrests under Bloomberg than any mayor in New York City history," said Dr. Harry Levine, a Sociology professor at Queens College and the nation's leading expert on marijuana arrests. "Bloomberg's police have arrested more people for marijuana than Mayors Koch, Dinkins, and Giuliani combined. These arrests cost tens of millions of dollars every year, and introduce tens of thousands of young people into our broken criminal justice system."
"The NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg are waging a war on young Blacks and Latinos in New York," said Kyung Ji Rhee, Director of the Institute for Juvenile Justice Reforms and Alternatives. "These 50,000 arrests for small amounts of marijuana can have devastating consequences for New Yorkers and their families, including: permanent criminal records, loss of financial aid, possible loss of child custody, loss of public housing and a host of other collateral damage. It's not a coincidence that the neighborhoods with high marijuana arrests are the same neighborhoods with high stop-and-frisks and high juvenile arrests."
http://www.drugpolicy.org/...
Ray Kelly Orders NYPD To Stop Arresting Minimal Pot Possessors
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly sent an internal memo (posted by WNYC) to the NYPD telling departments to stop arresting people who possess small amounts of marijuana.
The order comes at a time when Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg have been harshly criticized for the huge spike in marijuana-related arrests.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Plus, he adds, "When the mayor is so happy to give felony convictions through these stop-and-frisks, your chances of getting this job are even slimmer."
The problem is that, statistically speaking, under Mayor Bloomberg, it's only black and Latino men who are being stopped and frisked. Wielded so disproportionately, stop-and-frisk has become a kind of assault he uses against them. Not examining this in his desire to "help" these men is as crazy as if the governor of Iowa wanted to wage war on obesity without examining the role of high-fructose corn syrup.
Now, let's accept that a criminal conviction—any conviction—makes it far less likely that you'll get hired as a New York City firefighter, a city clerk, or in any job in the private sector. Even the Young Men's Initiative bluntly acknowledges this.
What it doesn't admit is that for the city's black and brown young men, stop-and-frisk is often the first step on the road to a first conviction.
According to the NYCLU, stop-and-frisks result in no arrest nearly 90 percent of the time. But the raw numbers are so high, and the percentage is so asymmetrically black and Latino, that you still end up with more than 50,000 drug arrests a year of young brown and black men.
http://www.villagevoice.com/...
Once more, words fail me.
"In 1977, small amounts of marijuana were decriminalized in the New York State Legislature," says Kassandra Frederique of the Drug Policy Alliance. "So you can have up to 25 grams, which is seven-eighths of an ounce, on your person, and that would be a violation similar to jaywalking or traffic tickets." It's something that could carry a $100 fine, she explains, and is only an "arrestable offense . . . if it's in plain view or if it's burning."
"I'm a police officer, I come up to you," Frederique explains as if she were a cop approaching a young man in East New York. "'What are you doing? What's in your pockets? Pull it out.' Once you pull it out, it becomes 'marijuana in plain view.'
"And that's when they arrest you."