Chicago Cops Still Busting African Americans for Cannabis
Photo by ChameleonsEye
Despite the fact that Chicago has now decriminalized smaller amounts of cannabis, police are still targeting and arresting African American citizens based on racial profiling.
According to the Chicago Sun Times, an investigation done by their publication turned up the results that African Americans are still being targeted even though decriminalization happened four years ago. The study revealed that even though police are only making a fraction of the cannabis misdemeanor arrests they were in 2011, before decriminalization happened, 18 out of 20 neighborhoods with the highest rate of possession arrests and 17 out of 20 with the highest rates of cannabis ticketing are African American neighborhoods.
Furthermore, the neighborhoods with the lowest rate of arrest are mostly white. There are also notorious cases of unfair arrests of black individuals with cannabis. One man was pulled over and arrested for only having a butt from a joint in his car, even though the street value was estimated at $2.00.
“They’re nickel-and-dime cases that police use to conduct what would otherwise be illegal searches and seizures,” explained Richard Dickinson, a Chicago defense lawyer, to Chicago Sun Times. “It’s a law enforcement tool to do investigations they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.”
In response to this, a new law was implemented at the end of July. Taking decriminalization a step further, police are no longer allowed to make an arrest for under 10 grams, which is about a third of an ounce.
“It really does allow us to focus our attention where problems really are,” stated Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, the chief sponsor of the bill.
As policy slowly changes, many are examining the inherently racist aspects of cannabis criminalization, such and profiling African Americans or Latinos as cannabis users or sellers. As the use of cannabis becomes more accepted, these stigmas will slowly be stripped away.
