How New York's Finest Get the Weed Out

Last year I wrote a column inspired by a New York Civil Liberties Union report about the Big Apple's "little-noticed crackdown on pot smokers." Yesterday a co-author of that report, Queens College sociologist Harry G. Levine, published an article on Alternet that describes how police trick people carrying small amounts of marijuana, which is not an arrestable offense in New York, into revealing it, which is:

NYPD commanders direct officers to stop and question many young people and make arrests for possessing "contraband." In 2008, the NYPD made more than half a million recorded stop and frisks and an unknown number of unrecorded stops, disproportionately in black, Latino and low-income neighborhoods. By far, the most common contraband young people might possess is a small amount of marijuana.

According to U.S. Supreme Court decisions, police are allowed to thoroughly pat down the outside of someone's clothing looking for a gun, which is bulky and easy to detect. But police cannot legally search inside a person's pockets and belongings without permission or probable cause.

However, police officers can legally make false statements to people they stop, and officers can trick people into revealing things. So in a stern, authoritative voice, NYPD officers will say to the young people they stop:

"We're going to have to search you. If you have anything illegal you should show it to us now. If we find something when we search you, you'll have to spend the night in jail. But if you show us what you have now, maybe we can just give you a ticket. And if it's nothing but a little weed, maybe we can let you go. So if you've got anything you're not supposed to have, take it out and show it now."

When police say this, the young people usually take out their small amount of marijuana and hand it over. Their marijuana is now "open to public view." And that—having a bit of pot out and open to be seen—technically makes it a crime, a fingerprintable offense. And for cooperating with the police, the young people are handcuffed and jailed.

Levine adds that "since 1997 the NYPD has used this procedure to make tens of thousands of marijuana arrests a year, averaging about a hundred a day," which is "more than ten times the average number of marijuana arrests the City made previously." Although "New York is extreme in the number of its marijuana arrests," he says, other cities—including Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Antonio—"are also making pot possession arrests and jailings at high rates, often using the same techniques as the NYPD."

Comments

Further evidence most dopers are dumb as rocks.
“Here’s my weed officer.Can I go now?”

[hmm]

Not surprised. Cops do the same thing all over.

[James A Garfield]

I recently gave a (long) car ride to a friend who had some marijuana on him. Before going, he said, (not an exact quote), “I’m carrying some weed. I have my prescription with me. If we are stopped by the police, you don’t have to volunteer that there’s any contraband in your car. If they do want to search the car, and find anything, claim ignorance and deflect all questions to me: I’ll tell them that I own it and brought it into your car without your knowledge.”

I appreciated his courtesy in laying the whole thing out, since I’d never really had to think about what to say in that kind of situation. But Jesus, it’s ridiculous that we had to have this conversation, and that New Yorkers have to navigate this kind of protocol with their police officers, in the name of preventing a victimless activity that’s clearly less harmful than many perfectly legal activities.

[Tostitos]

This is why I don’t buy the mantra of trusting police. They will lie to your face and play on your ignorance of the fourth amendment just to put you in jail.

[Solanum]

But don’t forget, if in asserting your constitutional right to be free from unlawful search and seizure fail to do as the officer asks, [you] run the risk of having holes placed [where God did not intend].

[The Libertarian Guy]

I told a cop once (just a conversation, I wasn’t being arrested), quote:

“It’s a shame you guys have to bother with puny arrests of people with a joint’s worth of weed. Meanwhile, somewhere, a thug is beating his wife, or another one is molesting a kid, and God knows why we allow Congressmen to walk around like they were normal people.”

He laughed, then told me he had never arrested anyone for pot possession. A colleague of his said he would only arrest for pot if someone were providing it to a minor, and had in fact done that (once up to that point) in his decade on the force.

I was duly surprised, as I’ve met cops who would shoot their own family members if they found so much as a Zig Zag paper.

[Episiarch]

What’s this for? For bein’ an honest cop? Hmm? Or for being stupid enough to get shot in the face? You tell them that they can shove it.

[some cop]

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

[Nipplemancer]

a great philosopher once said “Fuck Da Po-Lice!”

[ransom147]

i knew a cop in Denver who was a libertarian. he told me if he came across someone in an arrest who had some coke or weed, he would just have them throw it in the gutter or something. he also felt bad that he was forcing people to dispose of their private property, but figured that was a lesser evil than a drug charge.

that said, i’m sure he was the exception to the rule.

my policy is never submit to a search. if the cops have the right to search you, make them arrest you first.

[The Libertarian Guy]

ransom, in the case I cited above (yep, it’s anecdotal, but since I’m not an elected official, I have no compunction to lie), the cop in question – after he got off duty – fired up a fairly decent bowl of weed with me.

One in a million, perhaps, but there ya go.

[Tricky Prickears]

It begs the question, how many illegal guns have they confiscated as a result of “Stop and Frisk”? Compared to marijuana arrests?

In my experience, the best way to stop a cop in his tracks is to mention a private attorney. Don’t be rude, just mention it. Unless they think they really have something on you (or you have something), they back down real quick. I’ve walked on several occasions with more than just marijuana in my pocket.

One time, while driving out of Camden, NJ, a State Trooper pulled me over. This was the third time in two months I had been pulled over in Camden. I said, to the black Trooper, “look, I know the only reason you pulled me over is because I’m white, and I’m leaving Camden.” Not rudely, but forcefully. He went back to his car, ran my license, came back and sent me on my way. When I got home, I had noticed I had dropped a “bag” on the floor of the truck. Had he asked me to step out, he would have seen it, instantly.

The way to avoid a lot of bullshit is to take over the situation. The way you do that, is by the way you react to his questions. Be forceful, but not rude. Annoyed, but not pissed. Not too smart, but not too stupid. Respond quickly, but not so quickly that you seem to have “all the answers”.

I’ve also got out of at least two DWIs. Once I hit a curb in front of a cop car stopped at a light at 2AM, completely shitfaced, and I failed the field sobriety test. The cop gave me a ride home, because I had a flat tire from hitting the curb.

It probably sounds like I’m bragging, an maybe I am. But my point is, you can get out of a lot of stupid shit just by the way you react to a few questions.

[The Angry Optimist]

Sorry, but that lying and subsequent arrest is the textbook definition of entrapment. Only irrational fears about TEH WEED prevent it from being enforced as such.

[JD]

God, but NYC politics and the NYPD suck.

[ransom147]

The Libertarian Guy:

thanks, your story is what reminded me of that cop i knew years ago. anecdotal, but hopeful at least ya know?

i’ve always wanted to hand out oathkeepers propaganda at parades, protests and the like.

[Tulpa]

Sounds like NYC public schools aren’t edumacating their charges about their 4th amendment rights.

[The Libertarian Guy]

At one gathering, I had a chance to ask a few cops what their views were on the pot issue.

Out of a handful I talked to at that particular venue, only one had that “grr, pot as bad as heroin, Hulk smash” attitude.

Over the years, very few more I’ve chatted with have had that view, though admittedly I’m talking about cops in my area. Some of them will tear your car apart looking for a soggy, hair-covered half-joint, and some won’t even bother giving you “the lecture”. Mixed bag.

Point is, if we have to have cops, at least let them be the kind that DON’T arrest people for a few dollars’ worth of marijuana. Not when United States Senators can roam the streets like they were ordinary, decent human beings.

The way to avoid a lot of bullshit is to take over the situation. The way you do that, is by the way you react to his questions. Be forceful, but not rude. Annoyed, but not pissed. Not too smart, but not too stupid. Respond quickly, but not so quickly that you seem to have “all the answers”.

What Pricky said.Pretty much what I do in all “professional” interactions with the po pos.

[ransom147]

Tulpa:

public schools educating… now there’s a notion.

Sorry, but that lying and subsequent arrest is the textbook definition of entrapment.

TAO, so are you in beauty school now? Remind me not to let you cut my hair.The doper is already committing the crime of having dope,no entrapment is involved.Not “an arrestable offense” is not the same thing as “legal”.

[The Libertarian Guy]

“the doper”?

What is this… Reefer Madness day?

Tell ya what, #… why not leave the aging Harry Anslinger lingo in the shitcan where it belongs?

You got me all wrong TLG.Mary Jane is a close personal friend of mine.I take the pot.I’m hopped up on muggles right now.Gotta load another bowl of wacky tobbacky…..

[old perv]

“So if you’ve got anything you’re not supposed to have, take it out and show it now.”

“Officer, I have a used condom in my pocket. Would you like me to give it to you?”

[Stoner]

cuz…

like…

….WOW, MAN!

[Paul]

describes how police trick people carrying small amounts of marijuana, which is not an arrestable offense in New York, into revealing it, which is:

Well, we are dealing with pot-smokers, here…

[Paul]

But if you show us what you have now, maybe we can just give you a ticket. And if it’s nothing but a little weed, maybe we can let you go. So if you’ve got anything you’re not supposed to have, take it out and show it now.”

Seriously, though, the alternative (according to what some cops have been implicitly saying as of late) is if you don’t comply, your bullet-riddled body will be more than happy to comply with our request demand.

[The Angry Optimist]

.The doper is already committing the crime of having dope

Hey, dipshit. It’s a violation that gets ticketed. It’s the “open air” display that the cop entraps people into doing that makes it an arrestable offense. They are two discrete, different things.

So cram it, fuckstick.

[hmm]

Ask the cops you know that are higher up if they are willing to give up the money they get from the drug war.

I’ve run across both sides of the argument talking to cops. I also know for a fact some will say one thing at the BBQ and do the opposite while in uniform. There’s a small vocal minority that I think honestly do what they say, most tow the lion while at work.

The ability of officers to tell “little lies” in any interrogation is bullshit. It should be entrapment no matter how small the lie.

For the record my opinion of officers, yes I group them together they all take a similar oath, is about as high as a rattlesnakes hemorrhoids. That’s after dealing with them in both a work atmosphere, volunteer atmosphere, as social/friends and acquaintances, and in day to day life.

[ransom147]

TAO:

“So cram it, fuckstick.”

pls tell us how you really feel.

[JB]

I’m really surprised more pigs aren’t butchered in the streets. I’m not talking about killed. I’m talking about sliced up into fucking pieces and deposited on their station’s door-step.

[Federal Dog]

” “since 1997 the NYPD has used this procedure to make tens of thousands of marijuana arrests a year, averaging about a hundred a day,”

WOOHOO! Time to haul those lab analysts into court!

[James Ard]

It isn’t about the pot. It’s about getting really stupid people off the streets so the rest of can be safe.

[New World Dan]

I’ve run across both sides of the argument talking to cops. I also know for a fact some will say one thing at the BBQ and do the opposite while in uniform. There’s a small vocal minority that I think honestly do what they say, most tow the lion while at work.

Cops, like the rest of us, generally do what they’re paid to do at work despite their personal feelings.

[Lamar]

The police use these tactics to dupe people into showing their contraband. People quickly learn that cooperating with the police gets them arrested. Then the police wonder why nobody will cooperate in a murder investigation six weeks later.

[hmm]

Cops, like the rest of us, generally do what they’re paid to do at work despite their personal feelings.

Who else gets paid to destroy lives over a plant? The Nuremberg defense doesn’t work very well when you have authority over people.

[Nike Free Run 2shoes]

police cannot legally search inside a person’s pockets and belongings without permission or probable cause.