Hundreds of Marijuana Arrests One Month After Decriminalization in Philadelphia

[Garion_55]

Hundreds of people in the city of Philadelphia have been arrested on marijuana possession charges just one month after the city council voted to decriminalize the substance. On June 19th the city voted for decriminalization, but since it went into effect, 264 people have been charged with possession of marijuana.

Of those 264 people, 140 of them were charged with no other crimes at all, and had no other reason to be arrested aside from the fact that they were holding marijuana, which was supposedly decriminalized at the time. As for the additional 126 people who were charged with additional crimes, the vast majority of them were nonviolent crimes related to other drug offenses.

Even though decriminalization became official last month, Mayor Michael Nutter has publicly opposed the bill and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey threatened to continue arresting people even if the decriminalization measure passed into law, apparently he has followed through on his promise.


Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/hundreds-arrests-month-decriminalization-philadelphia/#J7uYhZS0zfBzZS2Q.99

[randys1]

1. Sounds like you need to "follow the money", some private prison somewhere

is paying someone to make sure new prisoners keep coming in.

[rock]

2. The mayor sounds like a repiggie

If a law doesn't suit them they use democratic means to change it. (sarcasm. They actually ignore it.)

[Trillo]

3. So, reduce the power of the executive over police policy and actions.

Police should be to keep communities safe, not politically harass others involved in legal activities. Make sure police are held to a standard of law enforcement, and not be partisan trolls with guns and jails.