Broken Logic

The WaPo is mystified:

D.C. marijuana study: Blacks far more likely to be arrested than whites, ACLU says

Possession arrests surged more than 60 percent between 2001 and 2010, one of the largest increases in the nation, the civil liberties group found. Arrests of African Americans accounted for much of that increase, raising concerns among community leaders and criminal justice experts about racial profiling by police.

“I travel around the city and I see undercover ‘jump-out’ cars east of the river, and I don’t see them uptown or in Georgetown,” said the Rev. Anthony J. Motley, a prominent Southeast pastor. “We want the laws enforced, but make it equal.”

...

[Peter Reuter, a public-policy professor at the University of Maryland who has studied arrest rates for marijuana possession] has found the same widening of racial disparities in arrests for marijuana possession in his own research. The reasons behind the increase in possession arrests among African Americans, however, is unclear, he said.

This is only a mystery if you think the police are patrolling high-crime areas hoping to make marijuana busts. Oddly, the ACLU and I are in complete agreement on the explanation, at which Prof. Reuter hints. Here is the ACLU version of the "broken-windows" policing strategy:

Concentrated enforcement of marijuana laws based on a person’s race or community
has not only been a central component of this country’s broader assault on drugs and
drug users, it has also resulted from shifts in policing strategies, and the incentives
driving such strategies. Over the past 20 years, various policing models rooted in the “broken windows” theory, such as order-maintenance and zero-tolerance policing, have resulted in law enforcement pouring resources into targeted communities to enforce
aggressively a wide array of low-level offenses, infractions, and ordinances through
tenacious stop, frisk, and search practices. Indeed, it seems hard to avoid the conclusion that police tactics of effectuating a high volume of arrests for minor offenses has been a major contributor to the 51% rise in marijuana arrests between 1995 and 2010.

Well, yeah - part of the "broken windows" approach is to bust everybody who can be busted for anything that can be made to stick and then hope to get lucky by discovering, in the course of arraignment, some dramatic outstanding warrants against the recently arrested. Hence the lack of police "jump-out" cars in my boring middle-class neighborhood neighborhood.

The ACLU report presents the numbers pretty clearly, although they duck the obvious conclusion:

In 2010, there were more than 20,000 people incarcerated on the sole charge of marijuana possession.

Stated simply, marijuana has become the drug of choice for state and local police departments nationwide. Between 2001 and 2010, there were 8,244,943 marijuana arrests, of which 7,295,880, or 88%, were for marijuana possession. In 2010 alone, there were 889,133 marijuana arrests — 300,000 more than arrests for all violent crimes combined — or one every 37 seconds.

So over 7 million arrest for possession led to only 20,000 people in jail for possession? The ACLU does not say so, but I will bet that many of the other arrestees ended up doing time for something else. Or, it may be that the police have been utterly wasting their time with this approach and the crime rate has been falling in most cities for other reasons (I am burying the lead).

My hunch is that the racial disparity in marijuana arrests is probably mirrored by a racial disparity in jaywalking summons and other minor charges. As a matter of social policy we surely don't want to criminalize all common behaviors, thereby giving the police an excuse to detain all of us. But I also suspect that if it wasn't marijuana it would be something else in these high crime neighborhoods.

Comments

[Rob Crawford]

Don't want to be arrested for marijuana possession? You have two choices:

1. Get the laws changed so it's not a crime.

2. Don't possess marijuana.

[daddy]

test

[daddy]

CentralCal's link 2 threads back of IRS guy Fink intentionally lying to Congress while under Oath is worth watching. He should have been hauled out in handcuffs instead of having been given the opportunity to correct his Lie by Chairman Issa. I can't link right now, but if somebody can please post that video again:

WOW: IRS official caught lying UNDER OATH on when he knew how much the extravagant IRS conference would cost

[Reefer Dorothy Madness]

Dope use causes tornadoes, heavy rain, cold summers and colder winters.

[James D.]

Rob, in theory I agree with you.

But on the flip side, the people who actually do write the laws are generally venal and corrupt, and often quite stupid as well. And the people who enforce the laws are not terribly big on accountability or regard for the citizens they're sworn to "serve and protect."

So the "don't do the crime if you can't do the time" argument holds very little appeal for me these days in actual practice.

[rse]

All disparities are problemmatic, remember?

Must have our long-planned social revolution and that will fix everything.

New post up. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/new-mindsets-and-changed-values-tied-to-ict-as-the-long-sought-marxian-mode-of-production/

[Jane -]

Daddy,

I came into those hearings after he lied and thought he was the most credible guy I'd seen in a long time. SHows you what I know.

[Clarice]

We could try an experiment..we could get the cops outof the high crimes neighborhoods and put them to patrolling neighborhoods like mine--or Tom's--just to see what happens. My guess is if they did that here, people like the editors of the WaPo would be yelling that we are leaving unprotected the citizens who most need police on the spot and providing the richer neighborhoods of the city more help than they need. And, of course, it would inspite coutless charges of racism from the usuals.

[Clarice]

*inspiRe countless charges*

[daddy]

Jane,

Please watch that tape I can't link. Rep jason Chafetz is great and relentless.

If Fink came across as credible later on, perhaps it was because Issa had already saved him from 1 perjury, and he was scared enough to not try it again.

It's interesting after you watch that video and see what he says at the end, to then go back to the front of the video and se what he was saying at the beginning and compare. Blatant intentional lying.

[Account Deleted]

Clarice,

Before we try that could we run correlations on black unemployment, extended unemployment benefits, raised income limits for EBT cards and raised EBT benefit levels? The Choomster in Chief certainly hasn't made life any better on the Blue Hell Vote Plantations but he has increased free time available while providing the means for his subjects to keep on tokin'.

[daddy]

WOW: IRS official caught lying UNDER OATH on when he knew how much the extravagant IRS conference would cost

Hope this hits the TV News cycles.

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

I thought Issa handled the situation pretty well. By allowing him to "clarify" his testimony, he slapped Fink along side the head and got his attention so that he would be more forthcoming for the rest of the session. Sounds like it worked.

[daddy]

Here is Finks testimony under Oath at 4:20 into the Video, after he has been caught in a lie and is retracting:

"I was aware of the cost when we did...the estimated cost of 4.3 (Million) when we did the briefing for the 2 Deputy Commissioners of the Internal Revenue Service. That's when I became aware of the estimated cost."

Here is Finks testimony 4 minutes prior to Rep Chafetz:

I actually did not become aware of the massive expense until much later, I did not know what the expense was at the time of the Conference we were paying, I did not know what those expenses were."

Blatant lie, and caught in the lie because the guy next to him shows that Fink's signature is on the piece of paper asking for the 4.3 Million which was then presented to the 2 Deputy Commissioners, all so that the 2 Deputy Commissioners could approve the funding for the planned Conference.

[Rob Crawford]

So the "don't do the crime if you can't do the time" argument holds very little appeal for me these days in actual practice.

That's nice. So? It's still the law.

And, of course, it would inspite coutless charges of racism from the usuals.

Clarice, the sun coming up brings charges of racism these days.

[daddy]

The IRS's Faris Fink as Spock:

"Captain Issa, my Testimony is Illogical."

[narciso]

Meanwhile they are ficing Edith Jones for a noose, for similar observations,

[Melinda Romanoff Twitter exploded with that one]

NYT op/ed out saying "The Administration has now lost all credibility."

No linkie, sorry.

[Melinda Romanoff I'm late! I'm late!]

And C-cal posted it on another thread, 40 minutes ago.

(Missed it by THAT much.)

[daddy]

NYT op/ed out saying "The Administration has now lost all credibility."

Melinda, I thought I'd already covered this today?

Tom Hanks: [appears from behind bush] Hello. I'm Tom Hanks. The US Government has lost its credibility, so it's borrowing some of mine.

TV Son: Tussle my hair, Mr. Hanks!

Tom Hanks: Sure thing, son.
[laughs as he does so. Stars come out of the boy's hair. He then smiles in wonder]

Tom Hanks: Now, I'm pleased to tell you about the new Grand Canyon.
[shot changes to that of a smouldering crater]

Tom Hanks: Coming this weekend! It's east of Shelbyville and south of Capital City.

Marge Simpson: [watching ad] That's where Springfield is!

Tom Hanks: It's nowhere near where anything is or ever was. This is Tom Hanks saying, if you're gonna pick a government to trust, why not this one?

Unfortunately, in real life, Tom Hanks has chosen to trust the Marxist Government we currently have in power.

[Gus]

Clearly these marijuana arrests are the actions of 2 ROGUE AGENTS in Cincinnati.

Move along.

[narciso]

Yes, Forrest Gump has behaved better then Tom Hanks, the former would not have had anything to do with 'Julianne's Bender' or described the Pacific campaign as being motivated by racism, not unlike our current intervention,

[centralcal]

Let's recap today, shall we?

New York Times does an editorial saying Obama just ain't credible any more. (yes, they will praise him again tomorrow)

HuffPo did the composite photo of BushObama (similar to last week's Nixon/Obama) and now Media Matters has its panties all in knots, accusing HuffPo of not being "Liberal."

DNI Clapper is being chased down by National Journal to please explain how he testified in March that FISA was NOT being used to track millions of Americans electronically (asked by Dem Sen Wyden)? He lamely says to them today, he met, uh, er, emails. They weren't reading millions of American emails.

Fink nearly flunks at the IRS hearing, until Issa helps him out.

In his own hearing appearance, Holder won't say if Congress critters telephones are included in the massive data sweep.

All in all an interesting news day.

I look forward to reading all about it in the Brtish papers tomorrow morning - with any new revelations or details missed today.

[centralcal]

And then, there is the PRISM story (just mentioned on Fox News) from Washington Post this afternoon, about a much broader snooping via internet services:

The technology companies, which participate knowingly in PRISM operations, include most of the dominant global players of Silicon Valley. They are listed on a roster that bears their logos in order of entry into the program: “Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.” PalTalk, although much smaller, has hosted significant traffic during the Arab Spring and in the ongoing Syrian civil war.

Dropbox , the cloud storage and synchronization service, is described as “coming soon.”

[Gus]

Yes Centralcal, but who will be the first LIBTARD to say RUPERT MURDOCH did it first!!

I'll bet it won't be PIERS MORON.

[henry]

They weren't reading millions of American emails. Fix one lie with another, repeat as necessary.

[matt]

cities typically have a higher density of cops per unit area. Population densities are higher as well. The smell of pot is very strong, especially the strains smoked these days.

Thus when one can smell the stink of unsmoked or smoked pot at higher concentrations than ever before, the likelihood in urban areas of detecting the presence of said pot is much higher.

Oh, and pot is a preferred drug in urban areas too, especially the 'hood. Blunt and a 40.

[Corn-fed conservative (southern strategy version)]

"Thus when one can smell the stink of unsmoked or smoked pot at higher concentrations than ever before, the likelihood in urban areas of detecting the presence of said pot is much higher.'

Wow.

[Gus]

Black murderer rates are about 5 times higher than white murderer rates. Maybe the dead people are CHOOSING to be murdered by blacks too. So much racism. It's fucking joke.

[daddy]

All in all an interesting news day.

I look forward to reading all about it in the Brtish papers tomorrow morning - with any new revelations or details missed today

Beautiful summary, CentralCal!

[narciso]

Speaking of Broken logic;

Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability.(not unlike when Risen burned the TSP program, just because) The administration has now lost all credibility.(it must have been the nuance) Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it.(welcome to the party, Pal) That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the 9/11 attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.

[matt]

i didn't want to say that the sensible thing to do is go to those places where the crime occurs, Gus.

That would be far too ask of the kumbaya, antichristian, illogical, anti-American assholes who seem to run the various governments around our country these days.

[Corn-fed conservative (southern strategy version)]

Words and the meanings are important. 'Kumbayah' is not the anthem of the irreligious.

Wki;

"The origins of the song are disputed. Research in Kodaly Envoy by Lum Chee-Hoo has found that some time between 1922 and 1931, members of an organization called the Society for the Preservation of Spirituals collected a song from the South Carolina coast.[1] "Come By Heah", as they called it, was sung in Gullah, the creole language spoken by the former slaves living on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia.[2] Between 1926 and 1928, four more versions of traditional spirituals with the refrain "Come by Here" or "Come by Heah" were recorded in South Carolina and Georgia on wax cylinder by Robert Winslow Gordon, founder of what became the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.[3] In May 1936, John Lomax, Gordon's successor as head of the Library of Congress's folk archive, discovered a woman named Ethel Best singing "Come by Here" with a group in Raiford, Florida.[4]"

[Porchlight]

'Kumbayah' is not the anthem of the irreligious.

Corn-fed, it might not have been so in 1936, but it is now. The flower children co-opted it, thanks to Lomax showing them how it's done.

[Corn-fed conservative (southern strategy version)]

Porchlight? my eyes aren't that good with the grey-out.

Actually remember that from Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee of Calvary (Costa Mesa, Ca.), a Fundamentalist iconography. It was a mainspring of the chorals everyone seemed to know by heart.

This was 1970's. Maybe they weren't real Christians.

[NK on the Laptop]

CentralCal@ 603 and 613- just brilliant

Faris Fink?.. that's a real IRS dude, not a Coen Bros. Movie character?

[narciso]

Reminds me of this MST3K worthy offering;

[Account Deleted]

Sandy,

I don't have a decent guess. It looks like a hard push back but I don't know if it's a continuation of reprisal for the Benghazi political sacrifice or if there's something nastier going on. I don't like the way senior officers are being treated. BOzo wants boot lickers and he's trying to force senior people out to make places for them.

[Account Deleted]

Wrong thread.

[Landru]

Black guys are more likely to be arrested for marijuana becuase black guys sell it in public out on the street to strangers and white guys do it behind closed doors only to people they know. It really is that simple. They get arrested because they are basically holding a sign on the street saying "I am selling pot here!"

[Landru]

I know a guy who was once arrested for having a joint. He was smoking it while driving, but had a broken tail light. When the cop lit him up for that, he stubbed the joint out and put it in the ashtray, leaving it in plain view (and smell) of the cop when he walked up. I asked him why he didn't just toss it (this was on I-95 in Virginia) His reply: The cop would have seen him do it and gone back along the highway to find it. An idiot. This was a guy who later became so paranoid that he decided he needed to get rid of his bong. Instead of just tossing it in a dumpster, he drove all the way to the landfill, climbed up it, and buried it. After wiping off his fingerprints.

[Neo]

If only we could have some sort of "broken windows" enforcement regime within the EOP.
Just starting with missed deadlines for statutory reports, FOIA requests and the budget would be a good start.
Of course, the POTUS would be mumbling "Pardon Me" all day long.