For Immediate Release Tony Newman (646) 335-5384

May 25, 2011 Sean Barry (646) 373-3344

New Yorkers Rally Outside Mayor Bloomberg’s House

Calling for End to Costly, Biased Marijuana Arrest Crusade

Council Members Join Community Leaders, Deliver Mock

Proclamation to Bloomberg for Making NYC the
“Marijuana Arrest Capital of the World”

Blacks and Latinos Comprise 86% of Arrests Even though White Youth
More Likely to Use Marijuana; Most Arrests Are the Result of Illegal
Searches, Cost NY Taxpayers $75 Million A Year
New York, NY – Mayor Bloomberg’s Upper East Side house was surrounded by City Council Members and
fifty community members this morning demanding an end to illegal marijuana arrests, which have led to
staggering racial disparities and significant financial cost to the City. Carrying signs highlighting the racial
disparities, fiscal waste and constitutional violations associated with these arrests, the community members were
joined by City Council Members Letitia James, Melissa Mark-Viverito and Jumaane Williams.

Photos available online. Video available later today [contact for more information].

"The mayor wants to leave a legacy as someone who promoted greater freedoms in this City, but his record
around marijuana arrests tells a different story," said Robert Tolbert, a VOCAL-NY leader and Board member.
"Rather than subject our youth to criminal records that can close doors on their future, Mayor Bloomberg should
be investing in building up and stabilizing our communities. Instead, he is engaging in wasteful spending on
these arrests while programs that I and others in my community rely on are being cut."

In 2010, over 54,000 people were arrested in NY for possessing small amounts of marijuana – over 50,000 of
those arrests occurred in New York City alone. Marijuana possession is the number one arrest in the City,
comprising 15 percent of all arrests. The arrests are largely the result of illegal searches, have led to staggering
racial disparities, and cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars every year.

The estimated annual cost to taxpayers for these arrests is $75 million per year at a time when Mayor
Bloomberg has proposed $400 million in new cuts for human services programs, such as housing and nutrition
programs for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS.

"The NYPD's overzealous enforcement against the possession of small amounts of marijuana imposes
staggering social and fiscal costs on our city," said Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito. "While we fight for
a change in the state law to decriminalize the public display of small amounts of marijuana, the Bloomberg
administration and the Police Department should re-evaluate this policy. With the Mayor's Executive Budget
proposing the smallest police force in years, it is time to make more effective use of the NYPD's limited
resources. During these tough economic times, when we are contemplating severe cuts to basic municipal and
human services the $75 million we spend on marijuana arrests each year should be among the first places we
look for savings. Corrupting the intent of the law which originally sought to decriminalize marijuana and
bringing youth into the criminal justice system unnecessarily will, at the end of the day, only cost all of us more
socially and economically."

"The flood of illegal arrests for marijuana possession that has occurred under the Bloomberg administration is
an example of the worst of our city's problems' with inefficiency and inequality,” said Council Member Jumaane
Williams. “We wasted between $50-$100 million alone last year arresting individuals for low-level marijuana
violations, all at a time where the Mayor proposes cutting essential services to our children and seniors.
Furthermore, almost 90 percent of these arrests are targeting the youth of our black and Latino communities,
even when national studies show that young whites use marijuana at higher rates. The fact is that many of our
city's police officers are pressured to pad their arrest numbers, leading to illegal search and seizures and
damaging the relationship between the NYPD and our communities. We need our police and community leaders
to be partners on this issue, not adversaries."

Marijuana arrest rates have skyrocketed under Mayor Bloomberg even though possessing small amounts was
decriminalized in the 1970s. In fact, more people have been arrested for marijuana possession under Mayor
Bloomberg than under Mayors Koch, Dinkins, and Giuliani combined. About 85% of all those arrested for
possessing small amounts of marijuana are black and Latino, even though studies show that whites use
marijuana at higher rates. Nearly 70% of those arrested are of young people aged 16-29.

“I’m aghast that the NYPD has made marijuana possession a top arrest priority,” said Council Member Letitia
James. “Our youth already have to worry about the lack of available jobs, which is difficult enough, the last
thing they need is to be victims of illegal searches. These arrests are leading to the systematic humiliation and
harassment of Black and Latino residents, and the NYPD is only creating a greater divide between the officers
and the people they serve.”  

“The NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg are waging a war on young Blacks and Latinos in New York,” said Chino
Hardin, organizer with 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."

In Albany, new bipartisan legislation sponsored by Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries (D, WFP – Brooklyn)
and Senator Mark Grisanti (R, C, IP – Buffalo) would seek to clarify the intent of the original state law and
standardize penalties. Studies by Dr. Harry Levine of Queens College show that among cities and counties in the
U.S., Buffalo, Syracuse and New York City rank among the highest in terms of unwarranted racial disparities
associated with arrests for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

In the 2001 Mayoral race, Bloomberg told reporters he’d tried and enjoyed marijuana, but today the three-term
Mayor has not taken action to stop the epidemic of illegal searches and false arrests of tens of thousands of
young men of color.

“The NYPD’s marijuana enforcement practices are racially bias, unjust, costly – and almost certainly illegal,”
said Gabriel Sayegh, New York State Director for the Drug Policy Alliance. “Residents of the Mayor’s
neighborhood certainly use marijuana, and if they were treated just like the residents of East New York or
Harlem or the South Bronx or Jamaica – racially profiled, stopped and frisked en masse, illegally searched,
falsely charged and arrested by the tens of thousands – you can be sure this marijuana arrest crusade would end
immediately. That’s wrong. We need to make it right.”

As the number of stops and frisks have increased dramatically, so too have the arrests for marijuana possession.
Furthermore, most stop and frisks by the NYPD are probably illegal according to a new analysis by Ira Glasser,
former head of the ACLU and current Drug Policy Alliance President. The full issue brief is available on the
Drug Policy Alliance website: http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/stop-question-and-frisk-what-law-says-
about-your-rights

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