Bloomberg's Racist and Fraudulent Police Actions make even Giuliani look Good

by The Yellow Kid | May 13, 2008 at 04:35 pm

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Mayor Bloomberg has managed to one-up the fascist Giulianiand waist $100 million dollars of the cities money in the process. When the New York City police aren't busy chasing down andarresting city residents who are simply out riding their bikes on the streetsof New York,they are using deceptive tactics and racial profiling to keep officers lookingbusy and productive - all while Bloomberg is slashing budgets and closing the cities libraries. Rather then educate he'd rather discriminate. Shame on you Mayor Mike! Next thing you know he'll be bringing back Giuliani's "qualityof life" campaigns.

The New York Civil Liberties Union called the cities cannabis crackdown racist and fraudulent and likened it to a "Head Start [program] for prison and unemployment." Over past 10 years, 400,000 people have been arrested by the police for misdemeanor possession - 40,000 in the last year alone - the suprise suprise, the majority of these individuals are Black or Latino men under 25 living in the poorer neighborhoods.

The study also calls the policy a waste of money -- at an estimated$1,500 to $2,500 per arrest, it cost the city $60 to $100 million lastyear, at a time when Mayor Michael Bloomberg is slashing the citybudget and closing libraries on weekends. Peterson-Small adds that itviolates the spirit of the state's decriminalization law. The ban onpublic smoking, she says, was originally intended to apply only topeople creating a public nuisance, not to someone lighting updiscreetly "in the alley behind a jazz club."

Though the city's cannabis crackdown is Rudolph Giuliani's legacy, Bloomberg has continued it. Bloomberg has a reputation as a moderate, as less racist and draconian than Giuliani, and he famously declared "You bet I did -- and I enjoyed it" when asked if he had ever smoked pot. But in his first six years in office, more people have been arrested for misdemeanor possession than in Giuliani's entire eight-year regime.

"We are confident in estimating that about two-thirds to three-quartersof the people arrested were not smoking marijuana," the study says."Usually they were doing their utmost to keep their marijuanaconcealed, generally deep inside their clothing." The authors,sociologist Harry Levine of Queens College and activist DeborahPeterson-Small of the organization Break The Chains, say thatconclusion is "based on the experience of legal aid and public-defenderattorneys who have handled thousands of these cases, along with that ofthe police officers and arrestees we interviewed."