Alleged Illegal Searches by NYPD May Be Increasing Marijuana Arrests
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
By Ailsa Chang
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Antonio Rivera said police pulled marijuana out of his pants before arresting him for the misdemeanor of displaying marijuana in public view.(Ailsa Chang/WNYC)
Police arrest 140 people every day in New York City for possessing small amounts of marijuana. It's now by far the most common misdemeanor charge in the city, and thousands of these arrests take place when police stop-and-frisk young men in the poorest neighborhoods. While police say these stop-and-frisks are a way to find guns, what they find more often is a bag of marijuana.
An investigation by WNYC suggests that some police officers may be violating people’s constitutional rights when they are making marijuana arrests. Current and former cops, defense lawyers and more than a dozen men arrested for the lowest-level marijuana possession say illegal searches take place during stop-and-frisks, which are street encounters carried out overwhelmingly on blacks and Latinos.
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