NYC police accused of violating peoples rights, continues to stop and frisk people who haven't commited any crimes.
Police arrest 140 people every day in New York City for possessing small amounts of marijuana. It's now by far the most common misdemeanor charge in the city, and thousands of these arrests take place when police stop and frisk young men in the poorest neighborhoods. While police say these stop and frisks are a way to find guns, what they find more often is a bag of marijuana.
An investigation by WNYC suggests that some police officers may be violating people’s constitutional rights when they are making marijuana arrests. Current and former cops, defense lawyers and more than a dozen men arrested for the lowest-level marijuana possession say illegal searches take place during stop-and-frisks, which are street encounters carried out overwhelmingly on blacks and Latinos.
There is no record of how many illegal searches take place every year. In a written statement to WNYC, police spokesman Paul Browne acknowledged that illegal searches do happen, and officers get disciplined when the department finds out.
"If an officer conducted an improper search, he is instructed on how to do it properly; unless it was particularly egregious in which case he would face more severe disciplinary action," said Browne.
Under New York State law, possessing a small amount of pot becomes a crime a misdemeanor when it is smoked or displayed "open to public view." If the marijuana is concealed on the person, possession of the drug is only a violation, which is not a crime. The person receives a ticket and fine.
Link: http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2011/apr/26/marijuana-arrests/