New York City cops intentionally are targeting Black and Latino youth for marijuana possession, according to a new report from the Drug Policy Alliance. The data suggest that the NYPD, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, is acting on racial bias to inequitably arrest Black and Latinos for marijuana possessionan initiative that’s wasting both valuable taxpayer dollars and more than 1 million hours of police time.
The “One Million Police Hours” study, prepared by Queens College professor Dr. Harry Levine, quantifies that NYPD personnel have made 440,000 arrests (estimated at $1,000 to $2,000 or more a pop) over the last decade and held individuals in police custody for approximately 5 million hours, costing the city a grand total of at least $440 million dollarsthe report says estimates can exceed $1 billion.
